


A Song of Silence

by Simply_Heaven



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, American Sign Language, Bullying, Classical Music, Disabled Character, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Language Barrier, Leo plays the cello and Takumi loves it despite being deaf, M/M, Mild Language, also twice as long as I hoped it would be, deaf!Takumi, i know absolutely nothing about classical music or orchestra bear with me, inspired by Koe no Katachi, mute!Takumi, this one is very self indulgent thank you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 07:05:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10531386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Simply_Heaven/pseuds/Simply_Heaven
Summary: Shamelessly inspired by Koe no KatachiThere were two instances when Takumi realized that he was different to others: once when his late mother tried to explain to him that other people could hear things and he could not, and once when his elementary school bully played him his cello, expecting to be ignored by the stupid, lonely deaf boy that moved back into the district.Takumi never grasped language. Or at least, not to the extent of others. His first year in elementary school with others resulted in bullies in every hallway. When he moves back to his birthplace after several years in another town, not everybody who he knew in elementary school is happy to see him. As far as he is concerned, he was destined to be isolated from others since he was born.Leo struggles with regret. After injuring Takumi when they were kids, he was singled out by every one of his friends. Over the years, he has struggled to maintain his friendships because nobody wants to befriend someone who forced someone to move schools. So he submerges himself in his cello to deal with his isolation, giving him new ways to express his emotions and drown out what others say about him behind his back. Until he is given another chance.





	

**Author's Note:**

> wHEEZES THIS TOOK SO LONG
> 
> Anyways I really want to see A Silent Voice but I can't find anywhere that is streaming it so I listened to the soundtrack and trailers like a thousand times and decided to make my own spin of it. I had the idea to make Takumi mute for a while now. At first I was going to go with selective mutism but then I watched ASV's trailers and decided to base this fic off of that because it's cute. That being said, I already had a general idea in mind with Leo playing the cello, so some scenes will be carbon copies of one of the trailer's clips while most of it will be my own ideas. I also wrote this without being beta'd so it's probably full of mistakes. Still, hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> Also, I recommend getting through this in one go despite its length since a lot of parts towards the beginning foreshadow later events. That's just my recommendation though! ;)

Ryoma always expressed that when he was little, Hinoka and him would sneak into Takumi’s nursery while Mother wasn’t watching and read him their favorite books. They thought that he just wasn’t used to hearing things and needed help getting accustomed to voices, so they sat at the foot of his crib with books in their laps, reading in a range of funny voices in hopes of developing and strengthening his ears. When Mother found out, she began to lock the nursery at nights and on days when she was home from work so Ryoma and Hinoka didn’t get a false sense of hope for their little brother.

 

She spent the better portion of her free time learning how to sign. Learning sign language was a group effort. Mother taught Takumi words as she studied them. She started at _“eat” “hungry” “drink”_ and “ _play”_ thinking that achieving this much was a job well done. Interacting with her baby boy became increasingly easier as he grasped the signs better than she expected. She no longer saw him as a helpless child. Takumi was curious and constantly eager to learn more, just like any child his age.

 

But that didn’t stop Mother from wondering. Whenever she signed to him, she would make dramatic mouth-movements to accompany the sign, then have Takumi repeat. This only took her so far. How could she convey that to _speak_ is when one pushes air out of their lungs, contracts their voice box, and uses their mouth and tongue to form _words_ that other people can _hear?_

 

Takumi knew how to mouth words, but his voice went unused. This didn’t stop him from making sounds that others responded to. On the television, he saw cartoon children moving their mouths to their friends and family. He figured that there must be something he wasn’t doing, something missing that kept him from communicating in the same way.

 

Ryoma didn’t like it when Takumi tested his hypothesis. He opened his mouth, made the same movements, passing air through his lungs until there was a rumble in his throat that only came out when he was tickled, except this time, it was intense. _“Pain,”_ Ryoma signed, wincing and covering his ears. _“Stop.”_

 

Hinoka reacted differently, still not giving him the reaction he wanted. The vibrations in his throat this time was soft. “ _What?”_ she kept signing, time after time until she became frustrated. _“What? What? What’s wrong?”_

 

But Mother smiled and patted his head as if he unlocked the secret of life. When he tried to speak, she would lean down close to his ear and listen for his voice. Then she would “translate” his garbled language into something understandable for Ryoma and Hinoka. When they brought their friends over to the house and the friend didn’t know sign language, Mother would be his voice, the key to his mind, so he had hope of interacting with people outside his family. No family members were closer than them, and whenever they went on walks outside, they were always hand-in-hand with wide smiles on their faces.

 

Then, in a single breath, Father’s cancer came and went. His passing was quick when he was found with a stage four tumor in his colon. Ryoma had skipped class to visit him at the hospital on the day he died, and when Mother got the call at work, she came running. She found Ryoma crying at the edge of Father’s bed, followed by a sobbing Hinoka and a confused Takumi. That was when he learned how to sign _“dead.”_

 

Mother didn’t last too long after that. Hinoka noted that she was starting to age faster with every passing day after Father’s passing. She suspected that her condition was due to heartbreak. For the first time in his life, Takumi was without his aid. When Mother was bedridden with a recurring fever, he was left without someone’s hand to hold. And in three weeks, the key to his nonsensical speech was lost forever, again paving a wall between him and the outside. _“Dead,”_ Takumi signed to himself outside her bedroom door, feeling a strange amalgam of emotions wash over him that didn’t make sense. _“Lonely.” “Cold.” “Sad.” “Cry.” “Scared.” “Dead.”_

 

Later, he would learn from Ryoma that Mother always said that Takumi hated it when Ryoma’s bedroom wasn’t clean. Takumi had never been inside Ryoma’s room and didn’t know what it looked like, so the two laughed at their mother’s trick. _“She was funny,”_ Ryoma signed. _“I miss her.”_

 

 _“I miss her too,”_ Takumi replied.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Sakura, go wake up your brother,” Yukimura yawned, pouring himself a cup of black coffee. His morning drink of choice usually consisted of oolong tea straight from the pot, but recently, that paltry amount of caffeine wasn’t cutting out for him. For four nights straight, he had been up organizing document after document for the executive he was a secretary for with only two hour naps between spurts of work. He felt so distant from the physical realm that he had to be nudged awake every half hour by either Ryoma or Hinoka, who were also taking part in the executive’s project, but much less so they still had time to sleep. The bitterness of the black coffee rivaled the bitterness of his soul, though he would never say that out loud.

 

Sliding out of her seat at the table, the middle school girl obeyed the command and made her way upstairs where his bedroom was. From the top of the stairs, she heard the faint beeping of an alarm that was not yet shut off. Sakura didn’t bother knocking and slipped past the door to the bed at the far side. Various novels and textbooks were strewn about the dirty carpet, some bent and some dog-eared. A cheap, busted laptop sat on a desk in front of a window, a tab open to a closed-captioned video. Candy wrappers and cans of soda sat next to the laptop, a half-eaten chocolate treat melting on the wooden surface. On the nightstand next to the bed was the frantic alarm, still beeping despite having been going off for seven minutes.

 

The entire bedroom _smelled_ like teenage boy to Sakura. She scrunched her nose and leaned down at the side of the bed, gently rocking her brother’s shoulder from under the duvet.

 

She waited for Takumi to crack open his bleary eyes and yawn before signing _“Good morning,”_ touching her chin briefly with her hand and throwing it to the side of her face. Takumi mimicked her motion as well as signing _“Thank you,”_ a small tap on his chin and gesture to her. When she turned her back, thinking that he was done speaking to her, Sakura didn’t see Takumi ask _“What’s for breakfast?”_ He let his hands drop on top of his covers and fell back on his pillow, glaring at his clock, which he hoped Sakura turned off.

 

Silently, he wondered if he would see any old faces that day. He grimaced at the thought.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Uncle Yukimura, closest living relative, was too busy to continue homeschooling Takumi after the death of both parents. So, in a moment of desperation for the poor child, he enlisted him in public school several years ago.

 

At first, it seemed like a good idea. The elementary school teacher was informed about Takumi’s predicament and knew a bit of sign language herself, plus all notes would be written down anyway. He would finally get to experience a social environment with children his own age and learn to interact with people who could hear. If all went well, he could teach other kids all the signs he learned and spread the gift of communication to other little hands. This was what Yukimura envisioned.

 

According to the report from the teacher, there were a few kids that took special notice in Takumi. It started with whispering secret messages into his ears behind his back that Takumi didn’t notice, which was full of dirty, hateful words learned from their parents. The kid that sat behind him would scream all of a sudden and Takumi wouldn’t flinch, eyes only on the angry teacher. They were testing the extent of his disability. Their devious minds liked what they saw.

 

Takumi couldn’t hear the bell chime, signaling for the children to gather after recess, so he was often left alone on the playground for up to fifteen minutes before someone noticed his absence. He couldn’t sing for the elementary chorus classes, so everyone would laugh behind his back when he inevitably sang the wrong note, word, and volume. He couldn’t hear someone walking behind him, only that he could feel their hands on his back as he was shoved forward into other kids, who screamed and shoved back until Takumi felt like a ragdoll. He couldn’t hear when the only witness to the robbers of his books tried to explain that two others had taken his things while he was away and clogged one of the toilets with them.

 

At the front of all of this abuse was a kid named Leo.

 

Leo was a gifted child that read at a level twice his age, had the most colorful vocabulary, taught half of the class how to tie their shoes, and loved attention. He sat behind Takumi and took a special interest in his language. When he blew into Takumi’s ears to see how he would react, Takumi felt the gentle gust of wind, turned to him and smiled. He pointed to Leo’s chest, then at himself, and interlocked his index fingers twice. Leo, disgusted with this act of showing off, soon waged war.

 

“I’ll kill you,” Leo whispered to Takumi when the deaf boy was turned, focusing on his book. “And nobody would help you because you don’t know how to ask for help.” Finally picking up on the soft vibrations, Takumi turned to him, opened his notepad, took his pen, and wrote _"_ _What did you say?"_ He held out his pen and pad to Leo to write back, but Leo didn’t take them. He tutted and walked away to where his friends were. He shared his story and they laughed with him. They enjoyed watching what he would do. They enjoyed watching the abuse.

 

But he went too far one day during class. The teacher stepped out for a minute and Leo gathered the attention of everyone, standing behind Takumi who worked diligently on his vocabulary quiz. Leo thought it was a nice chance to clap his hands over Takumi’s ears.

 

“I didn’t think it would hurt him!” he cried when Takumi screamed in pain.

 

“I thought it only made people deaf, and he’s already deaf, so why not?” he reasoned when Takumi’s blood dripped from his chin.

 

“I thought... I thought it would be interesting...” he mumbled to Yukimura and his teacher when he visited the children’s hospital.

 

In a flash, Leo learned how to differentiate between a friend and a snitch. When the teacher had him stand up in front of everyone, shameful tears dripping down his red cheeks, his classmates sang a chorus of “Yeah, he started it” and “I never helped him” and “I tried to stop him” and “He’s just a bully.”

 

Leo spent the rest of the year watching his friend group move on without him. Rumors spread quickly, and even those who he never spoke to before gave him wary glances in the halls. Students didn’t want to associate with a psychopath like him. Nobody wanted to be friends with someone who forced a deaf person to move away and never come back.

 

He felt lonely, and he felt cold. His cries for attention got worse, going so far as to run away from home twice, until he figured out that nobody wanted to hear him, no matter what he did. His older brother Xander told him to suck up his pride and try being nice to others. But nothing worked, even as the times he cried himself to sleep became more frequent. If he could take back what he did during that stupid quiz, if he could take everything back, he would be fine.

 

 _It’s fine,_ he thought, tuning the strings of his cello before his lesson. He set up his camera as usual to tape everything for his followers. _Emotion is good for music, right?_

 

*~*~*~*

 

Takumi wondered if anyone would remember him. If they went to the same elementary school, it wouldn’t be hard to remember someone so outstanding as a deaf student. There aren’t exactly many of those in public schools.

 

Perhaps he could just fade away. If he got to choose his desk, he would always take the back. He would be out of sight from those same hateful glares. Nobody could tell him cruel things behind his back. Nobody could push him down, steal his things, or _hurt_ him like before. He would sit down, do his classwork, and get out without interacting with anyone besides the teacher, and if that made him standoffish, then so be it.

 

In his head, Ryoma’s text repeated in his head. _“If anyone causes you trouble, send me after them and I’ll give them Hell.”_ Hinoka’s text was in the same vein. _“Don’t let the bullies get you down. If they do, I have your back!”_

 

He stepped into his classroom, looking over a sea of faces that were a mixture of familiar and foreign. The teacher turned to him and tried to speak, but Takumi shot her down by signing, _“I can’t hear.”_ While he was busy finding a seat, passing many curious students down the middle of the desks, he suspected the teacher was saying something like, “Oh, you’re the special-needs student the principal warned me about. It’s a bit late in the semester to start classes, but welcome to psychology.”

 

When Takumi situated himself in his seat, a classmate poked his arm with the blunt end of her pen to get his attention. She smiled and waved hello, having quickly recognized him from elementary school. Takumi waved back with a blank expression. Then he felt another poke from the opposite side. Two male classmates waved hello. Takumi couldn’t put a name to them, but he greeted them back all the same. While the teacher explained that he was completely deaf, the entire class looked back at him, wide-eyed with fascination. It was a much better reaction than when he was little.

 

The eyes became too much and Takumi shrunk a little in his seat, staring down at his desk and refusing to make eye contact. He knew, deep down, that some of them would need to get used to him in the room as if he were some exotic animal. He was told to be patient from Ryoma, that most of them never even thought about what it would be like to be deaf and therefore didn’t know how to interact with him. At this point, Takumi didn’t care. They had already broken his trust before, why should he give them a second chance?

 

Takumi looked up again and the lesson had already started. The teacher tried to put as many of her oral notes on the board for him to copy, and after the class got into full swing, he was hardly noticed at all.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Get out your music sheets. We will be working on Canon in D Major. I hope you all practiced at home.”

 

Leo took out his folder from his back, flipped through his many music sheets, and placed “Pachelbel - Canon in D Major” on the stand in front of him. He fixed the height of the stand before leaning down to his left towards his cello case, undoing the clasps and revealing his instrument of choice. When he sat back up, the student behind him whacked the back of his head with a folder, refusing to apologize.

 

The year Leo’s friends began leaving him, his school offered an orchestra program to introduce young students to the musical arts. Practically everyone who joined the program chose the violin, but Leo was one of the few students who chose a different route. The soft, low notes of the cello calmed him much better than the higher-pitched violin tones. There was so much soul in a single cello piece that Leo began to appreciate classical music more and more.

 

He was good at what he did. He strived to be the best of his orchestra class, practicing for hours after school and even then, his efforts weren’t enough. There were little cello solos given out for school concerts and Leo made it his priority to win them all at every chance he got. The concerts were the only times that people listened to what he produced. The concerts were the only times people looked at him and applauded.

 

“Doesn’t he feel lonely?” someone asked.

 

“There he goes again,” another dismissed.

 

“Maybe if he stopped drowning in his own self-pity, he’d be able to hold a friend,” one laughed.

 

 _Go to Hell,_ Leo thought, running the rosin over his bow.

 

“Are you alright?” his teacher asked. “You look upset by something. We can’t have our token cello player getting distracted.”

 

Leo gulped, looking up at the man who was much too young to have gray hair. “I’m alright, Mr. Jakob.”

 

A chorus of giggles from the far corner. Leo held his chin high and got ready to play.

 

*~*~*~*

 

During the minutes between periods, Takumi was surrounded by different sensations. He felt the hundreds of students walking in unison amid the hallway, every footstep felt under Takumi’s feet. He felt as if he was sweating when he was trapped in the middle of a crowd, the heat from every other body rolling off of his hot cheeks. It was only when he was alone at the end of the day that he couldn’t feel anything anymore.

 

 _“How was your first day?”_ texted Hinoka. Takumi slung his backpack over his shoulders, shut his locker, and began his long reply, knowing that his older siblings wouldn’t be satisfied with a simple _Fine._ Some students and teachers were left in their last classes, all passed by Takumi who sought out the exit. He didn’t pay attention to where he was going until, from one room, he began to pick up something mysterious.

 

 _“It went better than I thought it would be,”_ Takumi texted back. _“Nobody tried screaming in my ears or whatever. Some people that I knew from before now seem interested in befriending me. I know people change with time, but I have the right to demand an apology. You know I hold grudges.”_

 

After he sent his text, Takumi stood at the open door of the room, hoping that nobody could see him. He felt something rhythmic, occasionally picking up in intensity before softening around his eardrums. Someone was playing music.

 

Takumi looked around the hall, searching for anyone who would see him. The hall was empty, and he took this as permission to slip past the door to feel the music better. Hopefully the player wouldn’t mind his presence.

 

The person playing the cello had his back turned. From what he could see, he had messy blonde hair and broad shoulders. Takumi leaned against the wall and allowed the music to flow through him.

 

His phone vibrated in his jean pocket. _“I know,”_ Hinoka replied. _“Try not to let that stop you from enjoying school. I’ll pick you up in 10 mins.”_

 

The music had stopped. The cello player had heard the phone vibrate and turned quickly to meet Takumi’s eye.

 

The two squinted at each other, trying to discern who the other was and if they knew each other. The blonde boy stood and placed his cello on the ground, his mouth moving and shaping unknown words. Takumi knitted his brows and typed out a message on his phone, walking over to the boy.

 

_“Hi, I’m Takumi and I’m deaf. Who are you?”_

 

Takumi...

 

The boy’s eyes widened with recognition and Takumi felt left out. Of course he remembered him, of course there was an 85 percent chance they went to the same elementary school for some time. But as much as Takumi tried, as with every other student that recognized him, he couldn’t quite pin a name to the boy. His face was so unlike the faces of third grade, with their pinchable cheeks and button noses. This boy had lost most of his baby fat and his nose was straight and pointed. His only childish features were his messy hair and his long eyelashes.

 

Taking the phone from his hands, the boy spelled out with shaking thumbs, _“My name is Leo.”_

 

Yes, Takumi remembered Leo painfully well.

 

Lowering his phone, Takumi’s eyes slowly narrowed up at the taller boy and huffed through his nose. His hands turned to fists at his sides. Refusing to get into a fight on his first day back, he turned his back to Leo and left towards the exit. But before he could leave, Leo ran up behind him and caught his arm. Unbeknownst to him, Takumi snarled deep in his underused throat.

 

“Wait,” Leo commanded, waving his hands in front of himself when he figured Takumi couldn’t hear the order. _I never thought he would come back to the same school district,_ Leo thought to himself. _Is this... a chance for repentance? If I apologize, will things go back to normal?_ He took out his own phone and began typing.

 

 _“I’m sorry for everything I did in the past. Can we be friends?”_ he typed and held out his phone for Takumi to see.

 

For a second, he thought he saw Takumi begin to relax. His shoulders drooped and he stared at the phone screen incredulously. He didn’t respond for what seemed like an entire minute, just taking deep breaths through his open mouth. Leo shuffled from foot to foot, suddenly uncomfortable.

 

After many years of reflection, Leo knew for a fact that he was sorry. He knew he was being a stupid kid back then, and the experience helped him grow up and learn the value of respect, or at least that’s what he told himself. He was different, he knew Takumi would be different. And if Takumi wanted a more formal apology, something to prove he meant what he wrote, he would happily oblige.

 

Somehow, it never occurred to him that his repentance started with a swift punch to his face and a broken nose.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Ah, if it isn’t little Leo,” Yukimura drawled in his warbling old voice. After hearing about the fight involving his nephew, some distant, rational part of his mind reasoned that sending Hinoka or Ryoma to get more details about it since they would probably be too defensive over their younger brother, he handed his duties off to the co workers below him and dragged Takumi to the hospital to meet the source. “You’ve grown quite a lot over the years, I hardly recognize you with my glasses on.”

 

Leo sat in his hospital bed with splints at either side of his nose and Takumi wanted to point and laugh at him. He looked absolutely miserable. _Now you know how I felt,_ Takumi thought, unable to hide his throaty chuckling.

 

“And you haven’t changed a bit, Mr. Yukimura,” Leo replied with all due respect. “I was surprised to see Takumi in school today. What are you doing back in Cheve?”

 

Yukimura smiled. “It is much more efficient to go to and from my workplace from here rather than from Nestra. After so long, we thought it was safe enough to return.” He frowned at Leo. “Though, I suppose not.”

 

“In my defence,” Leo pointed out with his nasal voice, “I did offer to bury the hatchet and he punched me for it.”

 

Yukimura turned to Takumi and signed _“Was Leo nice to you?”_ He felt as if he was dealing with children again.

 

Takumi scoffed and signed back _“No.”_

 

“He says you weren’t being nice to him,” Yukimura translated.

 

Leo shot back quickly, “Yes I was! He’s lying!”

 

By the look on his face, Takumi was able to decipher that Leo was angry and wouldn’t stop trying to prove his innocence until Yukimura believed him. Takumi turned away from his uncle, a sure sign he hadn’t told the truth.

 

“I’m so sorry he’s like this,” Yukimura admitted to Leo. “The school he moved to after yours treated him about the same, but he made two good, protective friends to keep him safe throughout his time there. He must miss them dearly.”

 

Leo raised his eyebrows. “I thought he would have a lot of trouble making friends,” he said.

 

Takumi leaned against the white wall of the hospital room, knocking the back of his head against it every so often. His arms swung free at his sides and he couldn’t sit still. Reading their lips only got him so far when they were speaking so fast, and now that nobody was translating for him, he felt he wasn’t even in the conversation anymore.

 

“He did,” Yukimura sighed. “But those two kids had hearts of gold and a real soft spot for the underdog.”

 

Leo licked his dry lips. “How exactly... did they manage to become his friend?”

 

“I believe they tried learning sign language first,” Yukimura scratched his thin stubble on his chin. “How do you expect to befriend someone if you do not know how to speak to them?”

 

He went on to ask Leo more details about his injury and offered to pay half of the hospital bill since it was technically his nephew’s fault. Takumi felt his mind go numb with boredom by the time he and Yukimura left the room. Leo watched them leave, guilt raining down on him.

 

 _It’s not enough to ask him,_ he thought. _I need to show him I’ve changed._

 

*~*~*~*

 

It wasn’t true that Leo didn’t have any friends. Not completely, anyway.

 

There was an upperclassman that Leo had the unfortunate pleasure of getting to know very well over the course of his high school career. It began when the upperclassman offered him weed to smoke behind the school. Leo, knowing his father would beat him if he came home smelling like marijuana fumes, turned him down. Then, too curious for his own good, Leo asked him where he got his hash, which turned into a detailed story about him spending very little time at home, to a confession about the harsh treatment of the upperclassman’s father.

 

They had spent hours sitting behind the school, talking about their parents and how similar their fathers were. Leo offered him a chance to get everything off his chest in return for advice. Even now that he had graduated after three years of being held back, Niles liked to visit the high school every so often to visit his “little man” behind the school like old times. He never went to college, instead working several part-time jobs to save up enough money to move away from his father’s house. Leo had encouraged him every step of the way.

 

At one point, Leo began to interact with one of the theatre kids. He met the guy after school during a period when he was part of his school’s pit. He, along with some others, helped play the music for some of the school’s shows, so Leo got to watch him go up on stage a lot. He seemed over-confident and cocky, not someone Leo would want to get to know. He had heard many bad things about that guy, and so he made it a point to avoid him while packing up his cello after a particularly long practice.

 

It wasn’t until he saw the theatre girls laughing behind the guy’s back that Leo finally understood. Odin was loud, and Odin had a presence that could stretch for miles. When he sang, everyone heard. But when he spoke, everyone turned away. He had an odd way of speaking, something that Leo heard immediately in his voice. _He could have some form of autism, right?_ Leo wondered to himself, clicking the clasps on his cello case shut. _Maybe that’s why nobody bothers with him._

 

From one outcast to another, Leo reached out to him. Odin did seem hesitant to befriend a school bully. He had a good heart, unlike Niles, and didn’t want to cause any harm to others. His confidence was blissful ignorance, and despite his vocabulary, Odin was unaware of what most were saying about him. But Leo was remarkably patient. He listened to his epic speeches and followed his eloquent words. When the two were together, the rumors about them increased tenfold. But at least Leo had someone to chat with every so often and say hi to in the halls.

 

He was fortunate to have what he had. He could never tell his family about either of his friends, one being a druggie and the other being an annoying idiot, but they made Leo smile and his heart warm all the same.

 

And yet the shame that came with them was a heavy blow. He was not allowed to see them outside of school, could never come over to his house, and needed to keep a healthy distance from them if he didn’t want to raise suspicion from his older brother. He wanted to be respectable in Xander’s eyes, so really he shouldn’t be befriending such odd characters. But he kept seeing them because, well...

 

... They felt nice.

 

*~*~*~*

 

They did not share any classes together, nor did they take any extracurriculars together. Because he entered school so late, Takumi didn’t have a chance at getting accepted for any of the honors clubs, student government, or any other prestigious group that Leo managed to find a way in. For a week, their paths didn't cross until Friday after school when, after his private cello practice, he saw Takumi be approached by two others. He knew for a fact that they were not from his school. If they were, he would recognize them teasing him between classes just like the rest of his grade.

 

The three began to have a fast conversation in sign language. Even the two friends, who he assumed could hear perfectly fine, decided to stay silent so their friend didn’t miss out on what they had to say. Leo couldn’t see the difference in each sign they made, they were all too experienced in the language for his beginner eyes.

 

 _“There’s a creep hiding behind the wall,”_ the female friend signed, jutting her chin at Leo who thought he was doing a great job hiding up until that point. Leo did his best to look humble and small.

 

 _“You know him?”_ the male friend asked Takumi, who turned and glared at Leo.

 

 _“Yes,”_ he replied. _“He was mean to me.”_

 

That was enough to set his friends off.

 

“What did you do to our Takumi?!” they barked, storming up to Leo and crossing their arms. The boy may have had a deep set frown, his attempt at looking intimidating for the sake of his friend, but the girl had a downright stink face. Leo stared at her in fright, the hair at the back of his neck standing on end. There was only one other person that could incite that level of fright--no, this was nothing in comparison to him.

 

“I didn’t do anything to him!” Leo protested, throwing his hands up in a submissive gesture. “He’s the one that punched me and gave me this!” He pointed at the healing red bruise around the bridge of his nose.

 

“I’d bet you deserved it!” The girl raised her voice, clasping her strong hands on her hips.

 

“Yeah!” the boy agreed.

 

Some feet behind them, Takumi snickered directly at Leo, not making any movement to stop his bodyguards.

 

 _That coward is hiding behind his friends without doing anything,_ Leo thought to himself angrily, feeling the corner of his eyebrow twitch. “I’m telling you guys, I didn’t _do anything!”_

 

A car that was parked in the nearby lot, just in view of the four students, began honking loudly. Leo and the two others who could hear jolted and turned towards the noise while Takumi kept his focus trained among them.

 

“Oboroooo,” the boy whined. “Hinoka’s getting impatient. We said we would only stop for a little, right?”

 

Oboro flicked her eyes at Leo again, her jaw tightening with frustration. “This isn’t over, okay? Let’s go, Hinata.”

 

Because it was the weekend and because Takumi kept too many spare books and water bottles in his locker, aside from his backpack resting on his shoulders, he carried two totes that he took from Sakura to transport said recyclables back home. To Oboro and Hinata, Takumi opened his left palm and rested his fist in it, thumb to the sky. He pulled his hands towards himself, then pointed at the bags.

 

“Come on, let’s help him,” Hinata said to Oboro, lifting the bag full of books with a grunt. The three soon turned their backs to Leo, only a small problem at the back of their minds. Leo watched them leave, none of them ever turning to see if Leo was still there.

 

 _What did he say?_ Leo wondered, mimicking the sign he saw Takumi make. _It didn’t exactly look like he was asking them to carry the bag... Maybe he was being vague? Maybe this means “help” or something?_ Leaning against the brick corner of the school, Leo placed his right fist in his left palm, thumb upward, and pulled his hands back towards his chest.

 

_“Help me.”_

 

He repeated his first sign until he committed it to memory.

 

_“Help me.”_

 

_“Help me.”_

 

_“Help me.”_

 

_“Help me.”_

 

*~*~*~*

 

Leo sat at his computer for the entire weekend, looking up videos that taught him sign language. He had a feeling that the language didn’t have articles and other parts of basic grammar. The rules of the language were so strange to him. In what world did the sentence “BALL, HIT BOY” make sense in any language?

 

“Oh, baby brother, you really shouldn’t hole yourself up like this,” he imagined his older sister Camilla cooing, nursing a cup of wine in one hand. “It’s not good for a boy your age.”

 

“I’m doing something important,” Leo would say, turning briefly from the screen to face her.

 

They would pause for a moment before Camilla would speak up. “What are you doing?” he imagined her asking.

 

“I’m learning a new language,” would come Leo’s reply.

 

Camilla’s chuckle played at the back of Leo’s brain. “You’re such a smart boy,” she would praise him before walking out of the room to finish the rest of her bottle.

 

Leo faced his closed bedroom door before turning back to his screen. He licked his dry lips, cracked his knuckles, and set off to work. At 6:15pm sharp, his little sister would call him down for dinner and his family would talk about funny things that happened in work and Leo would mention that he wanted to learn sign language and he would be praised for his dedication.

 

That’s just the thing. His family was full of would-be’s and what-if’s. It was as if he was living with a family of ghosts.

 

By the time the sun was going down and Leo needed to turn on his bedroom lights, he had learned basic phrases like _How are you?_ and _I don’t know._ At 7pm he went downstairs to microwave leftovers, passing his brother’s study and little sister’s bedroom.

 

 _When was the last time we all sat down and ate together?_ Leo asked himself, digging into three-day-old spaghetti that was burning hot on the outside and cold on the inside. He sat alone at the dining table, looking over a scatter of newspapers that Xander had collected from the previous week. They had headlines like “Terrorist Attack in Cyrnkesnia, 6 Dead 17 Wounded” and “Nohr’s Border Plan Shot Down By Hoshidan Emperor” and “Civil War Tensions in Valla Rise.” _Fear mongering, anxiety inducing yellow journalism for the dumb and the old._

 

His brother needed to keep up with the daily newspaper. Something about a stock exchange. Leo understood whatever Xander had told him about his job, but had never looked into its specifics. Whatever he did, Xander did for the good of his family, and Leo would always remember this fact regardless of how little the two interacted. Camilla too. She was always at her job, doing several types of degrading work because at least they paid well. They both hated what they did, but at least their devotion to their younger siblings was there to keep them going.

 

If they didn’t keep going, if they didn’t have the jobs they did, who knows what would have happened to them? Especially when they lived with a _monster._

 

When Leo finished, he washed his dishes, went down to the basement, set up his camera in its tripod, and took out his cello. He had been working hard to commit this piece to memory, and after six tries, he would finally get it right. When the camera was on, he took a breath and began to play Canon in D Major.

 

*~*~*~*

 

After two weeks of classes, several students had approached Takumi to ask about his life after moving away from Cheve. He always gave them the same, short answer to save time typing out the same response. _“Went to Nestra, made some friends, got taller, had acne.”_

 

It wasn’t as if he didn’t love the attention. Every time someone came up to him with a note, he felt a sense of giddiness and belonging, a foreign feeling he wasn’t expecting to have in this particular school. But whenever someone who claimed to know him from before came and tried to engage him, Takumi couldn’t help but keep his guard up. If this person laughed at him before, what is stopping them from doing so again? Are they just getting close to him so that when they push him down the stairs or humiliate him, it would hurt him so much more?

 

His teachers also began to settle with his presence. Many didn’t notice him anymore, only stopping him to hand over the class notes at the end of each period. They didn’t bother socializing him when they couldn’t communicate, so there was no point in one-on-one conversations like they had with the other students. Takumi felt alone in his own daydreams for most of the day. This was a familiar feeling.

 

He texted his friends from Nestra every day or two. They kept him company, even if they were still in class. _“We should hang out on the weekend,”_ Oboro insisted in the middle of her English period. _“We only live 40 minutes away.”_ It wasn’t as if Takumi did anything right after school. He couldn’t join sports because no coaches knew sign language, his choices in clubs were limited because of the same reason, and because of his late enrollment, he wasn’t qualified to join any honors-level club or course. So every day right after school, he waited outside until someone came to drive him home.

 

But almost every day Takumi would pass the orchestra room and sense a noise that was becoming harder and harder to ignore. He knew Leo was near when he felt the slow, steady rhythm of his cello. As much as he didn’t trust the guy, his music was beautiful. He didn’t know the difference between a D-sharp and an A-flat, but the beat was low and soft, eliciting a wistful feeling from deep within. Takumi tried to ignore him, he really did.

 

It wasn’t enough. The music felt too good. Sometimes Takumi would find himself leaning against the door to listen better. He would do this until the music stopped and Takumi thought Leo was packing up. Then he would run for cover in the nearest open room.

 

The gardening club had long since left their posts, their tools and fertilizers thrown into a student-bought shed behind the school. They had decided that this autumn, they would try to plant chrysanthemums. They were a beautiful flower that could withstand the November and December weather. Takumi went behind the school, curious to see what they had done so far from outside the fence around the gardening area. Not much progress had been made--the seeds hadn’t even sprouted yet.

 

Takumi leaned against the fence, fingers wrapping tight around the chain links, as he waited for the text that someone had arrived to take him away from this place. There was nothing for him here. He wanted his friends back, if only to translate everything people said behind his back.

 

He didn’t notice someone next to him until he felt a gentle tap on his right shoulder.

 

Flinching and pushing off the chain link fence, Takumi backpedaled with his hands raised until his instincts calmed down enough to see who was in front of him. He knit his eyebrows and glared up at Leo, who, by his sweating neck and heavy breathing, must have ran to meet him.

 

Takumi scoffed deep in his throat before taking out his phone and typing a message. _“What do you want? Do you want me to apologize for my friends? I’m not going to.”_

 

Leo read the message and shook his head, taking out his own phone. _“I have something to say.”_ Then, as an afterthought, he typed, _“As long as you promise not to break my nose again.”_

 

Takumi didn’t want to snicker, but he couldn’t stop himself. _“What is it? This had better not waste my time.”_

 

To his surprise, Leo put his phone back in his pocket and his cello case down at his feet, freeing his hands. Instead of fighting back with fire, Leo took a breath and tried to recall everything he had studied for the past week. First, he pointed to Takumi’s chest, then at himself, followed by interlocking his index fingers twice. _“Would you be my friend?”_

 

Leo turned and slapped himself in the face. “IDIOT!” he scolded himself. “So that’s what you were trying to say all those years ago...” During his studies, he had never put together the things Takumi used to sign to him on the playground. And yet, being in front of him, every little detail and gesture had come flooding back to him, and with it, a new layer of guilt. He raked his fingers through his hair, hissing through his teeth. “Stupid, stupid, stupid...!”

 

The sound of Takumi’s phone dropping to the grass brought Leo’s attention back to him. The deaf boy stared back at him with wide eyes, and for a second, Leo wondered if history would repeat itself. Slowly, he raised his hand to cover his nose, but found that his effort was in vain when Takumi signed back. He didn’t understand one of the signs and Takumi was going too fast for comfort, but from the context, Leo knew he was trying to convey, _“You know sign language?”_

 

Leo was prepared. He opened his left palm as if reading a book and wiggled his fingers over it. _“I’ve studied it.”_

 

There was a stressful silence between them as Leo waited for Takumi’s reaction. He seemed to be looking him over, trying to determine how serious Leo was. Then he bent over to grab his phone off the ground and typed out a message he knew the other would not understand if he signed it. _“You’re very persistent and stubborn, you know?”_

 

Leo took out his phone again and typed back, _“It takes one to know one lol.”_

 

Takumi stared at the message with a growing smile. By the time he typed a reply, Leo could hear him faintly chortling. _“I suppose you’re right. We’re one and the same.”_

 

And Leo began to laugh. He laughed at the awkward situation, he laughed at his own stupidity, he laughed at Takumi’s dumb smile, and then Takumi was laughing too. Takumi had an ugly laugh, one that was unrefined and primal after years of underuse. He couldn’t hear himself to fix it, never knowing just how funny it was to listen to his voice crack and break, the air grating against his throat like a strangled animal. But his laugh was oddly fitting and it made Leo feel for the boy even more.

 

To Takumi, Leo was now a key. He was a key to those who were out of his reach. He was a key to those who could _hear._

 

*~*~*~*

 

After making their amends, communication came to a standstill.

 

Sitting in front of the school against the wall facing the road, Leo nervously twiddled his thumbs while Takumi fussed with his long ash-colored hair. Leo never thought he would get this far. Perhaps Takumi had been so moved by his dedication to learn sign language that his character made a complete 180 in his judgement towards the cello player? Or maybe Takumi was equally desperate for a friend?

 

Leo sighed and resigned to the stupidest ice breaker he could think of. He typed out his message and shoved it into Takumi’s face. _“What’s your favorite food?”_

 

Takumi’s eyebrows shot upwards as he gave Leo an incredulous look. Then he fished out his own phone. _“Miso soup. Ever had it?”_

 

Scrunching his nose, Leo replied, _“That’s Hoshidan, right? There’s not a lot of Hoshidan food vendors here which is weird because we’re near the border.”_

 

_“Yukimura makes it for me all the time. He says it was my mother’s recipe.”_

 

_“You’re Hoshidan?”_

 

_“Yes, we moved to Cheve when my little sister was born. Shocker?”_

 

 _“No, not really. I’m 100% Nohrian.”_  Leo paused for a while to gather his thoughts. _“Do you read?”_

 

Takumi gave him another look. _“I’m deaf, not blind. Dumbass.”_

 

Leo chuckled. _“What do you like to read?”_

 

_“History. I like war stories.”_

 

He couldn’t believe it. _“Me too!”_ Leo replied. _“If you have any recs, send them my way.”_

 

Takumi smiled. _“Okay.”_ Then he added, _“I don’t do a lot after school, so I read a lot. I’ll send you a list when I look at my bookcase again.”_

 

_“What do you like to do besides read?”_

 

Tapping his chin, Takumi scrutinized the question before typing out, _“Ever play shogi?”_

 

Leo hummed curiously. _“It’s like chess, right? If so, I played chess but not shogi.”_

 

_“I’ll show you how to play sometime.”_

 

_“Okay.”_

 

Before Leo could type out another icebreaker, Takumi’s phone vibrated. Without them knowing, Ryoma had driven into the parking lot and was waiting for his little brother. Takumi waved his hand at Leo, and Leo took this as a sign to part ways. When Takumi was far enough, Leo slung his backpack over his shoulders, picked up his cello case, and began walking home alone.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Leo was in the middle of taping another song on his cello when his doorbell started to wildly go off. Startled by the loud sound, he quickly turned his camera off, ran up the basement stairs, and looked through the peephole. He opened the door to a familiar face. It was pouring rain outside.

 

“Help me,” Niles grunted, shivering in the cold. His white hair was wet and stuck to his face in thick tendrils. He was only wearing a thin hoodie, and in a second, Leo deduced that he must have been _freezing._ “Help me, _please.”_

 

He instructed Niles to stand on the welcome mat as he closed the door and ran to the nearest bathroom to grab a towel. He helped his friend spread it across his shoulders like a blanket. Niles didn’t stop shivering.

 

“What happened?” Leo asked, gesturing to a shelf of shoes. Niles took off his boots before rubbing at his right eye with the towel. It came back with flecks of blood.

 

“Shit, my old man got me,” Niles spat. In the light of his foyer, Leo could see that his friend was badly bruised on his chin and had a shallow cut on his cheek. But as his face began to dry, he saw an alarming amount of blood staining his light hair and trickling over his right eye. _How long was he running like this?_ Leo mused to himself, worrying his bottom lip. “Think you can patch me up for free?”

 

Leo didn’t like bringing people up to his bedroom. It was always filled with a healthy amount of chaos consisting of stray t-shirts and discarded books that posed a tripping hazard to anyone visiting. But since Leo didn’t know when Elise would be home from her friend’s, nor did he know when Camilla would be back from her nightly rounds and Xander from his overtime, Leo decided to play it safe in case one of them did end up coming home early. Niles sat on the edge of his bed, holding a washcloth soaked in cold water to his eye where the stinging hurt the most. Leo sat next to him with a bottle of rubbing alcohol and cotton balls, gently pressing them to Niles’ wounds.

 

“I went home for the first time in a week to make sure he didn’t find the drugs I stored under my mattress,” Niles confessed. Leo listened intently. “I was planning on just sleeping there for the night since I was running low on funds, it’s raining, and the motels in Macarath are getting sick of me. I was going to be in and out, I only needed five hours to shut my eyes and be on my way. I wasn’t expecting him to be home.”

 

He hissed and tensed when Leo pressed the rubbing alcohol to a fresh cut on the side of his face. Leo apologized.

 

“He came at me in a drunken rage, a bottle of rum in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Normally I keep a switchblade in my pocket just in case, but I wasn’t about to pull it on him when I knew he was so close to falling over.” Niles sighed, the reality of everything eating at him. “So he smashed his bottle on my head, screaming at me to get out. I blacked out a bit and he shook me by the throat until I pushed him away and ran. You were the first person I thought of to visit.”

 

“Flattered,” Leo replied with an edge of concern in his voice. “I’m just glad you got out okay. You took quite a beating. Let me see your eye?”

 

Niles slowly lowered the cloth from the side of his face, revealing a long, deep cut over his eyebrow and lid. His right eye twitched and fluttered in pain. Leo’s expression dropped as he pressed another cotton ball to Niles’ eyebrow.

 

“It doesn’t seem like the glass scratched your cornea, which is good because then you might have needed to go to the hospital,” Leo stated, trying to reassure his friend in any way he thought possible. “You might need to patch up your eye for a while, though.”

 

“The last thing I need is to be stuck on the local hospital’s doorstep because of a little THC in my system,” Niles exhaled. “I don’t even try the shit I sell, I’m only a vender. You know that.”

 

“But the hospital doesn’t,” Leo noted, frowning. He was gentle on Niles’ eye, only lightly dabbing the lid with the burning liquid, but he couldn’t help but notice how his friend’s jaw set, how Niles took a sharp breath and held it in so his pain didn’t show.

 

Once he was done, Niles side-eyed his friend. “How bad am I?”

 

Leo gestured to his bedroom mirror. “See for yourself.”

 

Niles set his hands on the dresser and assessed his damage in the mirror above it. “Shit!” he cursed, paying close attention to his right eye. “Shit! Shit! Shit! Fuck!” Leo listened as his string of expletives got progressively louder and more colorful. He screwed the lid back onto the bottle of rubbing alcohol and began the process of returning his tools to the bathroom across the hall. When he came back, Niles laid his back on his bed, completely resigned. “I don’t assume I can stay here for the night?”

 

“Elise is sleeping at her friend’s,” Leo said, looking at his bedside digital clock. “I don’t know when Xander and Camilla are coming back, though.”

 

Sitting up, Niles hunched over and hugged his waist. “I don’t assume that weirdo guy you know... Odin, was it...? I guess that guy wouldn’t have a vacancy?”

 

“His mother is very, um, not understanding from what I hear,” Leo sighed. “I don’t think Lissa would want to house someone in the drug business.”

 

Niles stared at Leo, then at the ceiling. After a long period of silence, he mumbled softly, “I don’t know what I’m gonna do this time around...”

 

Leo clicked his tongue as he gave his friend more thought, crossing his arms and training his eyes on the ground. He couldn’t go home, he couldn’t go to Odin’s, and he’d have one hell of a time hiding here. His eye needed healing so he couldn’t go out, and at this time of night, he was probably too exhausted to survive an Uber trip.

 

On top of this, Leo felt horrible that, over the course of the last few years he had known Niles, he felt as if he had done virtually nothing to help him step away from his father.

 

“... Maybe if you leave by four, five in the morning,” Leo gulped, rubbing the back of his neck. “Then you can stay. I would rather not have Camilla or Xander catch you leaving through the front door in the morning.”

 

“Why?” Niles asked, shooting his younger friend a smirk.

 

“Because I’m sure they would get the wrong idea.”

 

“Because they’d think we did something naughty?” Niles’ eyes were wide and his lips teasing.

 

Leo cleared his throat and turned away. He could almost taste the bile in his throat. “In any case, I’ll set you up on Elise’s bed. I’ll wake you up at four.”

 

Niles stood up, his entire demeanor brightening. “That’s all I need. Thank you, I’ll pay you back someday.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Is this some kind of fucking joke?”

 

All around them in the halls, students and teachers alike ogled the two boys as they walked together down towards the cafeteria. Every so often, they would type out messages on their phones to each other, but otherwise, they were a silent duo. Their presence set off a number of rumors ranging from “Leo is threatening Takumi to spend time with him” to “Leo is just using Takumi for sympathy, he doesn’t actually care about him.” Either way, Leo had little trouble turning a blind eye to these people after many years of experience. And of course, Takumi didn’t pay attention to what they said even if he could understand. Or perhaps he understood what they were saying by the disgusted looks on their faces and pitiful glances from across the cafeteria. Maybe he knew exactly what was going on. Maybe he too decided that it was best to ignore them.

 

“Someone needs to help that poor boy or he’s going to get beaten again.”

 

“He probably doesn’t even know what Leo’s saying half the time and going along with it because you can’t raise a deaf person to fight back. They’re defenseless.”

 

“I feel so sorry for him.”

 

 _That’s not what they were saying when we were stupid little tikes,_ Leo thought, balling his fist at his side. Takumi followed him dutifully, noting the tension in his shoulders. They made their way to the cafeteria, to the same corner that Leo always sat at, and began their meals in silence.

 

That was until one familiar face spotted them from the lunch crowd and ran towards them with a big grin. “Ah, if it isn’t my fellow instrumentalist in crime, but with a new comrade!” Odin laughed, clapping Takumi on the back. Takumi stared up at him with wide eyes, accepting his overt skinship in kind. Odin turned to Leo. “Pray tell, meddlesome mingler of others, will you be performing alongside me in the school’s next theatrics show?”

 

“Yeah, I’ll be part of the pit as usual after the fall concert,” Leo shrugged off. He was glad Takumi couldn’t hear him speak, for he had been spared the confusion of trying to decipher Odin’s words. “And I won’t be ‘performing alongside you’ since you’re the only one going on stage.”

 

“Ah, but you see!” Odin chuckled, waving his hand in some obscure movement in front of his face for dramatic effect. “The instruments and voices alike both play equally important roles. What is a singer without a beat? What is a fiddler without a voice?”

 

Leo rolled his eyes, then took a brief glance at Takumi, who seemed to be putting on a good act of listening to Odin’s drama despite not understanding what he was going on about. Maybe years of practice taught Takumi to focus on someone’s face when they speak instead of staring at their hands or off into space. Either way, he was a convincing actor. If Leo didn’t know any better, he would think Takumi was hanging on every word of Odin’s lyrics.

 

“Gee, you sure got me,” Leo exaggerated sarcastically, leering up at his friend. “Guess I had better throw out all of my music sheets that says ‘Solo for Cello’ on the top. Those ones are obviously not real music without a voice to go along with it.”

 

Odin took a step back and gulped. “No, I didn’t mean…” He tried to save himself, but soon found he couldn’t. So he fixed his hurt visage and put his usual smirk back on. “Glad to have you on the team once more! Tell me, who is your silent companion here? He does seem familiar…”

 

Leo shook his head, then gestured to Takumi with a wave of his hand. “You wouldn’t have met him before unless he’s in one of your classes. He’s Takumi, you might have heard of him?” Assuming he was being introduced by the way Leo pointed to him, Takumi waved up at Odin with a small grin.

 

“Takumi…” Odin trailed off, trying to remember where he heard that name before. It must have been one of those names that were floating around school recently, one he never paid any real attention to until now. “... Are you, perhaps, the one who was born without the ability to hear?”

 

“The very same,” Leo answered for Takumi, taking another bite out of his bologna and tomato sandwich.

 

Odin’s eyes practically glistened. “Wow! What a unique hero!” Then he grabbed Takumi’s hands with his own and held them tight. “I amend you for your bravery, unhearing prince! It must be so difficult to navigate the vast quarters of this universe without one of your precious senses!”

 

Leo leaned over the table towards Takumi and batted away Odin’s intrusive hands. “What point of being deaf didn’t you understand, Odin?” he sighed plaintively.

 

Takumi took this time to fish out his English notebook and a pen, hastily writing out a note and underlining it three times for emphasis. He held it out for the two to see. _“WHAT IS GOING ON?!”_

 

Leo took the notebook and pen while Odin watched, writing back _“Odin is being weird. He’s my friend.”_

 

Odin scoffed. “I’m not weird, I just don’t abide by conformity law!” he objected.

 

Leo continued writing. _“He’s emo and needs more friends. His bark is so much worse than his bite.”_

 

Takumi gave Odin a once-over before writing back, _“I hope so.”_

 

“Fear not, tragic noble!” Odin began before finally catching himself. He took one of the metal seats next to the two boys and grabbed the notebook and pen for himself. He began mimicking what he saw Leo and Takumi do and quickly jotted down his response. _“Do not fear, Odin Dark does not hurt any friends-of-friends he may have!”_

 

Takumi snorted at the answer, chewing on the end of his pen cap as he thought of something else to write. Leo continued to dig into his lunch, thinking, _So much for Takumi not having to listen to Odin speak._

 

The three spent their lunch period passing each other messages on the notebook paper, completely filling up the page in three different types of handwriting. Odin didn’t even stop to buy lunch, too invested in getting to know Takumi, that when the bell rang for next period, his stomach growled. Instead of throwing the page away in one of the trash bins, Leo watched as Takumi ripped the page out of his notebook and placed it in his folder to save for later. Leo wondered what Takumi could possibly want to do with the page, but didn’t ask. The three waved goodbye at the top of the school stairwell and finally parted ways for the day.

 

*~*~*~*

 

_“Hinata and Oboro are coming over today. You’re free to come over too, but you don’t have to.”_

 

Leo had gotten Takumi’s text early Saturday morning. He had woken up to the tantalizing smell of bacon and eggs, finally being able to sit at a table with his siblings for the first time in ages. When his phone went off in the middle of a conversation about Xander’s work, he had raised the eyebrows of each of his siblings by stating that he made a friend. Finally, Leo felt ready to open up to his siblings about the subject. Takumi was more than respectable, therefore, Leo didn’t shy away from answering their questions about him, nor did he turn away Camilla’s offer to drive him to Takumi’s house where she inquired more information about what it was like to befriend someone who he sent to the hospital many years prior.

 

Leo found out that Takumi’s house was hostile territory the moment he stepped inside. Takumi’s older sister Hinoka opened the door, assuming he was a door-to-door salesman and closed the door in his face. After some convincing, Takumi came to greet him with open arms only to be shot down by his older brother Ryoma who wouldn’t let Leo into Takumi’s room without knowing every small detail about Leo’s life. His little sister Sakura joined the fray, listening inquisitively from the living room couch. That’s when Leo learned that entire families can hold grudges.

 

He could feel their eyes boring into the back of his head as Takumi pulled him towards where Hinata and Oboro were waiting, their scowls causing him to shrink when he met their gazes. He heard their whispers behind his back, how they didn’t know what Takumi was thinking or how they wished to show Leo how much pain and stress their family went through because of him. Takumi must have sensed the tension because when he pushed Leo into his room where Hinata and Oboro sat on his bed with their phones, he promptly shut the door to keep away prying eyes.

 

Oboro turned up her nose, putting on her patent stink face as Leo stood awkwardly in the center of the room. “Never thought I’d see _you_ again,” she admitted, clutching her phone hard in her hand. “Not after last time, anyway.”

 

Leo turned to Hinata. “Does she usually do that to people she doesn’t like?” he asked, pointing his index finger to her.

 

“Yeah, she does it a lot,” Hinata sighed, setting his phone down. “Don’t worry, just give her some time to adjust to your presence and she should be fine.”

 

“What about me? Am I going to be fine?” Leo asked.

 

“Hmm… that’s up for debate.”

 

Leo flinched when Takumi gently prodded him towards his bookcase where hastily stacked and sorted books of varying colors and thickness sat in wait. Upon a closer inspection, he noticed that almost all of them were history textbooks that covered topics across many cultures. Such a full bookcase of treasure was Takumi’s boon. Leo felt his knees go weak--all he wanted to do now was steal five or six and curl up in his own bed back home while the house was silent. Maybe with a hot cup of coffee.

 

“Takumi told us that you liked books,” Hinata said, focusing on his social media. “He got so excited he finally had someone who shares his passion for history that he managed to tire his hands out. We’re lucky he didn’t blow up our phones with what he said.”

 

Holding out a message on his phone that read, _“Wanna take one?”_ Takumi gestured to his bookcase. Leo quickly ran his fingers over the spines of a few promising volumes, only half listening to Hinata’s words. “What did he say?”

 

“Just that he was happy and stuff.”

 

Oboro cut in. “He also dragged us for not being into history as much as you,” she barked, seemingly seconds away from throwing her phone at Leo for his crimes. “Us! His friends since elementary! Can you believe it?”

 

“Calm down, Oboro,” Hinata soothed, crossing his legs over Takumi’s mattress. “He’s not replacing us, he’s just… expanding his network.”

 

Scoffing under her breath, Oboro shifted so she could lie her back flush against the mattress, holding her phone above her head to continue scrolling through whatever it was that caught her attention. She muttered something that Leo didn’t catch, but he didn’t bother to press her.

 

The second thing Leo learned that day was that there was something comforting about how the four of them sat in relative silence, whether it was staring at their phones or reading a book. The only times they broke the silence was to show each other funny videos or to ask a question. Sometimes, they would engage in debates about a topic that ran across someone’s dashboard--Leo liked those the most--but there was a downside. To bring Takumi into the conversation, Oboro and Hinata would sign long strings of words, oftentimes faster than what Leo could keep up with. There was so much he couldn’t understand besides the occasional sign, but it wasn’t enough. He had a feeling that when Hinata translated for him, he was paraphrasing and Leo never got the whole picture that everyone else did. He certainly wasn’t laughing when the rest laughed. As these debates carried on, Leo began to feel isolated in a room full of people he trusted.

 

He began to wonder if this was what Takumi’s life was like.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Leo didn’t play his cello after school anymore, or at least that’s what Takumi concluded. He no longer felt his music coming from the orchestra room after school, nor did he wait in front of Takumi’s locker after last period as usual. He couldn’t blame the blonde for a change in habits. He thought Leo was busy and that is why they spent most of their time apart now. Takumi tried not to get so hurt over the fact.

 

One day when waiting for Ryoma to pick him up, Takumi wandered towards the far side of the school, passing his time in a way that felt productive instead of staring at his phone until he got his text. The auditorium was quite small and clearly not as well-maintained as the school track or field. Takumi pushed open one of the heavy doors and peeked inside.

 

The entire school orchestra fit on the small stage, facing a conductor in the center. Some of them sat in chairs, others stood, and all of them had stands with sheet music on them. In the darkness of the auditorium, the chorus and band made themselves comfortable in the audience seats. Takumi spotted a small patch of cello players near the back and lo and behold, Leo was there fiddling idly with his instrument’s strings while listening to the conductor speak. He didn’t seem to notice Takumi standing in the doorframe.

 

As soon as the conductor--Mr. Jakob?--seemingly dismissed them, the auditorium was filled with movement. The chorus and band surprised Takumi when they suddenly rose from their seats and made their way to their friends. As for the orchestra, they focused on packing up their instruments. Leo did this as quickly as he could, not pausing to talk to anyone as he marched his way offstage. Takumi ran after him.

 

 _“Hi L-E-O,”_ he signed. It was familiar enough that Leo recognized what he was saying and cast the gesture back to him without a second thought. After learning basic words, Leo figured that the best thing he could do instead of learning an entire dictionary was to learn how to finger spell. This way, he could spell out words he didn’t know yet and hope Takumi understood.

 

Once they were back in the hall, Leo set his cello down. _“How did you F-I-N-D me?”_ he asked, leaning up against the school wall. Students continued to file out of the doors in groups of three or five, soon leaving Leo and Takumi alone.

 

Instead of answering, Takumi shrugged his shoulders. _“What were you doing?”_

 

Leo began to sign something, fumbled with his fingers for a few seconds, then realized he couldn’t make a complete sentence. He took out his phone and started typing. _“The orchestra team is practicing for the fall concert on Friday. I need to perform.”_

 

Takumi’s eyes widened in awe. _“Cool!”_

 

Leo continued typing. _“You should come on Friday. I have a sweet cello solo.”_

 

Truth be told, Leo didn’t quite understand why Takumi expressed joy when he listened to him play his cello. When they were in the orchestra room and he played something slow, Takumi would relax in his seat. But time and time again, Leo tried to trip him up and speed up the pace or make one really odd note and Takumi would pick up on it, becoming alert. He didn’t understand how a deaf person could hear music, but he certainly wasn’t complaining. In any case, he never knew how to ask.

 

Takumi pursed his lips and mulled the proposition over in his mind before signing, _“Okay, I will.”_

 

A sigh of relief escaped Leo’s lips as he felt some sort of weight fall from his shoulders. He knew Takumi liked music, surprisingly, and going to a concert would be a nice experience for him, right? He would be there and his eyes would be on Leo and everything would be fine. At least, this is what Leo wished for.

 

He suddenly felt excited for the concert.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Since Leo could no longer set foot on Takumi’s property without being threatened by his family or jabbed with some condescending remark, they two decided to hang out at Leo’s house. It was relatively safe during the day. Elise was at Effie’s house as per usual, Xander was at work, and Camilla was most likely sleeping in her room since her work takes so much out of her at night. Thus, they decided it was best to chill in the basement just in case she woke up.

 

 _“What’s that for?”_ Takumi asked, pointing to Leo’s camcorder in the corner of the main den. It was a tiny, old thing sitting on top of a black secondhand tripod. Now, the tripod was folded up and the entire ensemble was leaning against the walls, out of the way from the area so Xander doesn’t trip over it again.

 

 _“It’s my camera,”_ Leo answered in a text. “ _I make videos.”_

 

 _“Of what?”_ Takumi signed.

 

Leo scratched the back of his neck, feeling his face heat up. Talking about himself felt weird. He didn’t particularly like the feeling. _“Me playing the cello,”_ Leo answered.

 

Takumi clicked his tongue and took out his phone. _“Do you use closed captions?”_

 

_“I don’t need them.”_

 

Takumi paused, looking around the room. There were two loveseats in front of a large television with many consoles hooked up to it. Something that looked and felt like a wolf pelt was nailed to one of the walls while a bookcase filled with board games and encyclopedias rested against another. There were two doors leading out of the room, one to the garage and one to a private office.

 

The office probably had a computer of some sort. _“Can I listen?”_ Takumi asked, hopeful. Leo didn’t know how to respond. How could a deaf person listen to music electronically? Surely it must be different than in real life, even though Leo still didn’t understand the circumstances around that.

 

Deciding to indulge his friend, Leo lead Takumi to Xander’s office and turned his computer on. It was an old model, but it worked fine so they never had a reason to get a new one. He logged in to his account where Takumi saw the thumbnails of his videos; each of them were of Leo’s body sitting in a chair with his cello, his head cropped out of view. Each title was aptly named after the original song. Overall, it looked like a boring video on the surface, completely devoid of clickbait.

 

Takumi sat in the plush office chair and scrolled through a few videos while Leo tapped his fingers on Xander’s desk anxiously. He hated feeling like he was bragging or showing off, it was better just to stay silent and wait for someone to recognize his accomplishments.

 

After he chose “Egmont - Beethoven (cello)” Takumi asked Leo if he had headphones. At this point, Leo was becoming more and more confused by his friend’s requests. He raised his eyebrows upon reading his message and, shaking off his disbelief, opened one of the desk’s drawers and pulled out a pair of earbuds. Takumi placed them in his unhearing ears and plugged them in while the video was loading.

 

To Leo’s amusement--or, rather, complete horror--Takumi raised the volume as high as it could possibly go on the old computer. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and, as he watched himself play the first note, his hands dug into the back of Xander’s chair to keep from falling over. The music was _loud_ , he could hear everything clearly despite the earbuds plugged safely in Takumi’s ears. Takumi sat straight-backed in the chair, completely unflinching, eyes locked on the video. With every passing second, Leo felt a new emotion from where he stood next to his friend, ranging from anxiety to awe to confusion to embarrassment to fascination.

 

By the time the video was done playing and Leo’s headless body played the last note, Takumi turned to Leo and smiled. _“It was very good,”_ he signed. Then added in a note, _“Just like real life.”_

 

Leo felt himself flush at the praise. _“Thank you.”_ He bit his lip when Takumi scrolled through his playlist, eager to listen to more. There was a question at the back of Leo’s mind threatening to burst forth, a question that had been in wait for far too long. He wondered if now was the time to ask it. His hand hovered over Takumi’s shoulder for an endless amount of time as he rallied his thoughts, trying to decide if it was a bad idea to ask.

 

Takumi waited for “Bagatelle in A Minor - Beethoven (cello)” to load, attention trained to flickering bars at the bottom of the computer screen that signaled the wifi going in and out. Gently, Leo tapped Takumi’s right shoulder, a gesture he interpreted as a universal sign to get Takumi’s attention. He had been trained since birth to follow this gesture like a dog after all, and Takumi’s head whipped to the side to see Leo’s face once again.

 

Leo quickly typed out _“Why do you like music?”_ before he could regret his decision.

 

Takumi stared at the message on Leo’s phone before typing back, like the jerk he was, _“Why do you?”_

 

Leo shook his head. _“Why do you like music as a deaf person? It doesn’t make sense to me.”_

 

Smile fading, Takumi huffed to himself. There was a long pause and Leo felt regret settling at the base of his stomach like a ball of lead. His face flushed all over again and he wanted to hide. _I screwed everything up,_ he thought, mentally slapping himself. _Now he’s angry, now he doesn’t want anything to do with me--_

 

Takumi began typing back at a rapid speed as if he was prepared to give the answer for quite some time. Seconds passed, the video loaded, and Leo’s hands began to shake when Takumi took his sweet time typing out a long answer. After what seemed like forever, he read the full message.

 

 _“Just because I can’t hear the notes or whatever doesn’t mean I can’t like music,”_ it began. _“What matters most is the vibrations. I can feel the vibrations and the rhythm that they make, and that is what’s pleasurable to me. I know when a song is slow or when it is fast, how loud or soft it is supposed to be, and when the tempo changes. It takes lots of listening and practice, but over the years I’ve listened to a lot of songs and was able to discern them from the rest because of the beat. So trust me when I say, as a deaf person, you play very nicely.”_

 

Leo felt a smile stretch across his face with the last sentence. He didn’t even know how to respond. There came a point where he was signing, over and over, _"_ _Thank you, thank you."_ Finally, Takumi focused on the video and gave him the same set of praise.

 

_"Thank you so much."_

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Today we will be starting our neuroscience unit,” the psychology teacher--Mrs. Reina?--explained as she passed out colored packets to her students. Takumi took one and began to shuffle through it, looking at all of the diagrams of brains and its different parts. “As you know, learning and taking in information is key to a person’s psychology, especially when they are still in development. We wrap our opinions and self-image around what we are told, something I am sure everyone here knows too well when you’re at this age.”

 

Takumi opened the packet to another black and white diagram, this time with the ears attached. Each part of the ear was labeled, like the auditory canal, hammer, anvil, stirrup, and cochlea with the auditory nerve leading to the temporal lobe of the brain. Around the diagram, there were multiple “steps” about how sounds affect the brain.

 

 

  * ****Sound funnels through the pinna into the external auditory canal, a short tube that ends at the eardrum (tympanic membrane).****


  * **Sound causes the eardrum and its tiny attached bones in the middle portion to vibrate, and the vibrations are conducted to the nearby cochlea.**


  * **The spiral-shaped cochlea is part of the inner ear; it transforms sound into nerve impulses that travel to the brain with the auditory nerve.**


  * **The temporal lobe interprets the sound which the organism uses to make a proper response.**



 

 

Under the diagram, there was further clarification.

 

**As the ear is used to take in stimuli, the organism learns and interprets its behavior from the situation. Auditory processing combined with visual processing are both necessary for the social and mental development of a child.**

 

Takumi shut his packet just as the lesson began.

 

*~*~*~*

 

_Take a deep breath, Leo. You just need to focus._

 

Leo carried his cello to his seat, watching everyone else settle in on the stage before the curtains opened, revealing the school orchestra. He felt like he was going to choke behind his white collar dress shirt, especially due to the sweltering heat of the stage lights trained on him. Already, he could feel himself sweating. He looked out to the audience.

 

Mr. Jakob’s opening words praising his orchestra went over his head. Leo was too focused on the audience to remember what he said. Xander was working, Camilla was away, and Elise was busy after school. Leo didn’t blame them for not being able to come to the fall concert, after all, they had lives that were separate from his own. He wasn’t looking for them, however.

 

The sound of opening violins snapped Leo’s attention back on his cello. Of course, after so much practice, Leo didn’t miss a beat when his cue came. Canon in D Major came naturally to him by now, and soon, he was sucked into the music as he always was. The only times he came out of his trance was between songs. That was when he looked out into the audience again. That was when he looked for Takumi’s head among the crowd of proud mothers and fathers, to see if his friend had held up to his word.

 

“I hope you all enjoyed that,” Mr. Jakob said to the audience with his microphone. The curtains closed and everyone quickly moved out of the way, everyone except Leo. “Now, we have just one more special presentation to end the night…”

 

Leo breathed in and held his breath for eight seconds. His nerves began to calm themselves. Above everything, now was not the time to be nervous. The curtains opened to reveal only him on stage.

 

He began to play as usual, unaccompanied by the rest of his class. This piece was committed to memory as well, but this was his solo, Cello Suite No. 1. It was not his favorite piece, but it was something Mr. Jakob picked out specifically for him to play and who was he to say no? He closed his eyes and allowed his fingers to dance across his strings, pulling his bow across them with practiced grace.

 

When the piece came to an end and he fixed his eyes on the audience again, they began clapping and leaving their seats. Mr. Jakob quickly began dismissing them when the lights finally dimmed and curtains closed for the last time. Leo kept staring until they closed completely, cutting him off from the rest. Then he stood and walked offstage. He didn’t see Takumi.

 

“You were great!” Odin cheered backstage, wrapping an arm around Leo’s shoulders as he packed up his cello for the night. One would think Odin’s voice would be sore after singing in the chorus portion of the concert for so long, but this was not the case for Odin. “On this day, you triumphed like a mighty bard slaying the enemy with a heartfelt tune!”

 

“Yeah…” Leo paused, closing the clasps on the outside of his cello case and resting his hands on its cool, hard surface. He pursed his lips, visibly upset. “... D-do you think Lissa can drive me home?”

 

“You need a ride?” Odin asked, withdrawing his arm. “Mother should be waiting for me by the front entrance, I’m sure she would be happy to drop you off to your final destination.”

 

“Thank you,” Leo gulped, looking around desperately. He picked up his cello case with a resigned sigh, coming to two possible conclusions. Either Takumi got lost among a sea of parents trying to meet him and was unable to, or he didn’t come altogether. Leo wished it was the first. Then he could excuse the betrayal in his gut.

 

Lissa gladly drove Leo home, quickly complimenting his performance before falling into a comfortable (at least, to her) silence until Odin began talking again all the way until Leo was dropped off.

 

*~*~*~*

 

 _“I’m sorry, nobody in my family could drive me there,”_ Takumi apologized Monday after school. Leo tried not to be upset by the fact.

 

During the weekdays, Yukimura, Ryoma, and Hinoka worked until late (Yukimura moreso) while Sakura stayed home and locked herself up in her bedroom until dinner. Nobody wanted to admit it, but Takumi found out for himself that she stayed home for his behalf--in case a burglar broke in or a fire started while he was home, she would be there to alert him of the fire alarm or a broken door. It wasn’t that he couldn’t be responsible enough to care for himself, it was that certain precautions needed to be made and his life was too precious to lose if worse became worst. In any case, that didn’t stop Takumi from feeling like a burden to his family.

 

Now that Leo could come over weekdays after school, he sat in Takumi’s room like before atop his mattress while Takumi scrolled through his web browser on his laptop, a writing program open in the background. From where he sat, Leo could see Takumi’s browser history and noticed that he had been watching a lot of videos lately. By squinting his eyes and leaning in a little, he could see that Takumi had been watching a lot of _his_ videos.

 

 _“You sure like Beethoven,”_ Leo texted out and held out his phone for Takumi to see.

 

Takumi nodded and turned back to his laptop, typing out in the program, _“He’s my favorite classical composer.”_

 

Leo scrunched up his nose. There were so many great composers that he had been exposed to over the course of his musical training. There was Vivaldi, Chopin, Wagner, Debussy, Massenet, Rossini, Handel… Beethoven was the tip of the iceberg. Everybody knew him. He was the kind of composer one would name if they didn’t know anything about classical music. Leo wasn’t impressed.

 

 _“Name one of his songs,”_ Leo challenged.

 

Takumi tapped his chin for a bit before writing, _“Moonlight Sonata.”_

 

_“Name two more songs.”_

 

_“Ninth Symphony, Für Elise.”_

 

Leo clicked his tongue. If anything, Takumi knew Beethoven’s works well. He sighed in resignation and finally asked, _“Why do you like him so much?”_

 

Takumi eagerly wrote out his response, a response that completely caught Leo off guard. _“Because he’s kind of like me.”_

 

Covering his hot face with his hands, Leo’s phone dropped to the floor and he groaned. Of course Takumi would choose the one composer that he saw someone like himself in. “I’m sorry I’m an idiot,” he said to himself more than anyone else. Takumi started at him curiously for a while, but didn’t write anything else.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Because of a conflict at work, there was nobody to pick Takumi up after school on Thursday. His house was in walking distance, but he wasn’t fond of the idea of walking nearly three miles to get there. He especially was not fond of the idea of walking there alone. Leo normally walked home from school every day, living only 1.5 miles from the school, so since his house was on the way to Takumi’s (and Leo no longer had after-school rehearsals for now) they decided to walk together. Now that winter was coming ever closer, the wind had become brisk and chill. They both wore windbreakers with their hands shoved in their pockets as much as they could, only taking them out to converse.

 

 _“I didn’t have lunch,”_ Takumi admitted halfway into their trek, clenching his jaw against the sudden harsh wind. Two of his teachers had forgotten to make copies of the notes to give him, and so he needed to wait during his lunch period in order to receive them. It wouldn’t do to fall behind in his classes, regardless of his circumstances. He didn’t have time to eat by the time they were done, and now his stomach was softly growling.

 

 _“Want to eat?”_ Leo signed quickly, then jammed his hands in his pockets again. Walking for three miles like this would suck, but he knew somewhere where they could get food quickly. They took a short detour towards the main street where there were several strips of bookstores, studios, antique shops, pharmacies, and family-owned restaurants. Leo pointed one of them out, asking if Takumi wanted to go into that one.

 

Takumi gulped. _“I don’t have money,”_ he signed. Leo waved him off and practically dragged him into the pub. He checked the time--yes, this should be his shift, right?--and went up to the hostess to ask for a table. Hopefully, the two of them would be in and out, especially since now was far from rush hour. There were not a lot of people within the pub, so if they ordered something tiny, they would be back home in an hour.

 

They were seated at the end of the pub where they looked through a small lunch menu. There weren’t many items to choose from. Takumi mulled through the options in silence, having never been here before. Leo already knew what he wanted.

 

A familiar face came and approached them from the side. The waiter pulled out his notepad and pen from his apron. “Good afternoon, my name is--hey, if it isn’t Mr. Put-It-On-My-Tab Leo. Fancy seeing you here again,” he cooed.

 

“Oh good, Niles, you’re here,” Leo greeted his friend with a knowing smile. Ever since the night he came to Leo for help, Niles had to wear an eyepatch to work so the scars on the right side of his face were not visible. He had been healing well over the past month, but the damage was still too visible for his comfort. Ever since, he had grown attached to his eyepatch. “For a second, I thought you wouldn’t be working today and I would actually need money this time. Besides, I always pay you back during the weekend.”

 

“Now, now. You’re being a bad influence to your date over there.” Niles jutted his chin to Takumi, who perused his menu without even sensing Niles’ presence. “I don’t need _another_ one of you that doesn’t pay.”

 

Leo tapped his menu on the table before handing it over to the waiter, who tucked it under his arm. “He’s not my date,” he clarified. “Takumi and I are friends.”

 

Niles tapped his pen on his notepad impatiently. His boss had berated him many times in the past for taking too long with the clients and Leo was no exception. “Either way, will I need to teach you how to pay your bill?” he chuckled.

 

“No need,” Leo dismissed. “I’ll have my usual.” He then turned towards Takumi and gently lowered the other boy’s menu so they could look at each other. _“What are you eating?”_ he asked.

 

Takumi made a peace sign with his right hand and brought it to the open palm of his other. _“Two minutes.”_

 

Leo turned to Niles. “He says he needs more time.” Niles’ eyebrows shot upward at the display, but decided not to say anything. He took Leo’s order and made his way towards the kitchen without so much teasing. There was only so much freedom he had while on the clock, just the way Leo liked it.

 

Most of the time spent in the pub was in silence. Not the kind of silence that came with communicating via sign language, the kind of silence Leo had grown used to. Takumi kept to himself, reading and rereading the menu while Leo stared out the window, leaning back against his booth seat. The sun was bright and shined through thick white clouds, making the town seem dull and blinding at the same time. The nearby trees swayed with every wind’s caress. For the few minutes of complete and utter peace they had in the din of the sparsely-packed pub, Leo allowed himself to close his eyes and doze, just as he had done so many times before. And when Takumi finally decided what he wanted, he took in Leo’s peaceful countenance, his calm, relaxed posture, and their shared moment of stillness and solitude. So he decided to do the same.

 

A ceramic plate crashed onto the ground, waking Leo from his daydream. One of the waitresses had dropped someone’s meal and was frantically running around trying to clean her mess up. Leo took a deep breath and simply signed, _“Bathroom”_ before sliding out of his booth, leaving Takumi alone. Takumi watched as his friend made his way to the corner of the pub and slipped into one of the rooms. He looked around himself, assessing the atmosphere of the pub again. He suddenly felt vulnerable.

 

“Our coffee machine broke so I hope you don’t mind that I just put some coffee beans into hot water and stirred. Shouldn’t make much of a difference…” Niles mumbled when he came back, setting Leo’s cup of coffee and BLT on the table before realizing his friend was no longer there. He stared at Takumi, who pursed his lips in an attempt to smile back. It was an awfully quiet exchange. “So, uh… what are you having?”

 

Takumi began reaching for his phone, patting his pockets and jeans before taking it out and typing away his circumstance. But Niles must have taken this as a sign that he was being ignored because he jabbed his thumb towards the kitchen and muttered something about coming back. By the time Takumi wrote _“Hello, I’m sorry I can’t hear you because I was born deaf. I’ll have the soup of the day please,”_ Niles had disappeared.

 

Takumi slowly dropped his arm that was holding up his phone, leaned back in his seat, and waited for Leo to return.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Oboro couldn’t come today,” Hinata stated, sitting back on Takumi’s mattress. “She had a swim meet today but she sends her regards.”

 

“Oh,” Leo sighed, righting himself on the carpet at the edge of the bed. ”I guess that’s good for me, she doesn’t exactly like me.”

 

Hinata, like the kind soul he was, scooted over on the bed and patted the mattress next to him. “Wanna sit here?” Leo took his offer quickly, as anything would be more comfortable than the floor. “She doesn’t _hate_ you per se, it’s just that she’s really protective over Takumi is all.”

 

Leo’s eyes flicked over to Takumi, who sat on his desk chair facing their general direction. He seemed distracted by something on his phone because he wasn’t typing something. Leo looked back to Hinata. “I can tell.”

 

Hinata scratched the back of his neck. He was told many times by his coach to cut his long brown hair since it would hinder him during baseball practice. But he had long since grown attached to it after seeing Takumi grow his hair long, his friend stating, _“Why should I care how I look to others? I can’t hear the critics anyway.”_ Ever since, Hinata grew his hair to the length he wanted himself, not taking any liberties for his team regardless of what they thought.

 

“Oboro… she doesn’t have the easiest life,” he sighed. “Around the same time Takumi came to our district, she was orphaned because of a stupid drunk driver. There’s no easy way to say this, but she’s been struggling with a lot of things among the loss of her parents and I guess she just naturally latched onto Takumi because they both needed help at a young age. They both lost their parents too.”

 

Leo’s eyes widened in surprise, his mouth half-open. Before he could say something like “I would never have thought…” or “I’m sorry…” Hinata waved him off.

 

“She’s over it now, but you need to understand that they grew up so tightly together,” he said. “Everyone used to tease them that they would grow up and get married or something like that since they were practically attached at the hip. Takumi means so much to her and Oboro means a lot to him.”

 

Gulping down the lump in his throat, Leo whispered, “Why are you telling me this?”

 

Hinata shrugged. “I thought you should know. I know you don’t like her, but maybe… I dunno, make an exception for her?”

 

Takumi waved his arm at Hinata’s general direction to get his attention before holding up his phone and showing the two boys a video that Oboro sent. She, among the rest of her swim team, were in a circle surrounding one poor girl, all trying to get her to fit inside a single swim cap. Hinata gasped when they finally managed to pull the feat off, accented by Takumi’s amused chuckling.

 

 _They really are close,_ Leo thought to himself. _I wish I had someone like that._

 

*~*~*~*

 

 _“If you could have a chance to hear, would you take it?”_ Leo asked. Part of him wanted to err on the side of caution when it came to his curiosity on the subject, but the other part of him wanted answers and felt like he and Takumi were close enough to acquire one. Presently, Takumi lay flat on the carpet of his basement, having fallen over while playing a game and didn’t make any move to sit up again. He stared at Leo’s text as if he foresaw it coming.

 

Takumi typed out a short response. _“No.”_

 

Leo’s eyebrows shot up, surprised. He would have certainly thought that, what with Takumi’s fascination in music, that he would have wanted to actually hear some. Wouldn’t he be curious to hear his siblings’ voices? Wouldn’t he want to hear what it sounded like when Leo played his cello? The response didn’t make sense to Leo.

 

So he asked, _“Why?”_

 

On the corner of Xander’s desk, a place where they sat at an hour prior, was a bunch of newspapers in a pile. On the periodicals were headlines like, _“Another Gruesome Death in Izumo”_ and _“Embargo Strikes in Port Dia Still Going”_ and _“How does she do it? Cyrnkesnian Actress Shares Her Story.”_ Leo had flipped through them quickly while Takumi looked up certain things to show him. There was nothing good in the papers.

 

Takumi blew a breath through his lips like a horse while typing his answer. _“So I don’t need to listen to anything going on in the world. I don’t care for most things if they don’t affect me.”_

 

Leo knitted his brows at this. _“So you would rather live in ignorance? You wouldn’t want to hear music or hear people talk?”_

 

_“It’s a petty price to pay, but I’m happier like this, I’m sure.”_

 

Leo paused, thinking long and hard about Takumi’s words. _“What is it like being deaf?”_

 

Takumi looked to the door of Xander’s office. _“Peaceful.”_

 

*~*~*~*

 

Now that the cast for the school play was in full swing, the pit only had about two months to rehearse the play’s entire score. Leo had promised Odin that he would be part of the pit, but that didn’t mean he wanted to put up with the director’s hasty schedule that left Leo and the rest of the cast feeling underprepared. Slightly more than two months was not nearly enough time to perfect an entire play and everyone knew it. They didn’t mean they weren’t prepared to try.

 

As always, Odin was casted as the lead male. His loud voice coupled with his theatrical personality and dedication to each show helped him snag the spot again and again. He had enough energy for three parts in Leo’s opinion, but that would be impossible. Odin was content with just one and would do his best to be “his finest performance yet!”

 

Leo had told Takumi before practice began that if he wanted to walk to his house with him, he would need to wait until practice was over. When he sent that text, he didn’t mean for Takumi to hunt him out and wait in the halls for practice to get out.

 

 _“I was listening to the singers as well,”_ Takumi wrote, swinging his backpack back onto his shoulders. _“Since they were in the room down the hall. Your friend has a really loud voice.”_

 

 _“O-D-I-N?”_ Leo spelled out.

 

 _“Yes. He’s very powerful in that way.”_ Takumi put his phone away and began leading the way out.

 

Due to their location in the school, they decided to take a detour out of the nearest exit and visit the school’s garden. The gardening club’s chrysanthemums were vibrant and red. Many were still in the process of blooming, but this did not stop the garden from being beautiful in Takumi’s opinion. They pressed themselves against the fence for a while, breathing in the fresh scent of flowers. This was where they became friends, after all.

 

 _Even now, I’m still not that good at sign language,_ Leo thought. His hand hovered over Takumi’s shoulder. He kept taking it away, putting it back, letting it drop to his side, holding it up again, not exactly sure if he knew what he wanted to say. In the end, he kept his thoughts to himself. _I want to surprise him when I’m able to communicate with him fully in sign language one day._

 

Takumi smiled when a gentle breeze swept over him, quite the contrast from several days prior. The breeze brought along a strong floral scent, sweet and relaxing. Then, deciding he had prolonged their walk enough, he pushed off the fence and began walking away, knowing in the back of his mind that Leo would follow. Leo always did.

 

*~*~*~*

 

_I need to get away from this!_

 

_I need to go somewhere else!_

 

_I can’t stand this anymore!_

 

_Please, please, please, I need help!_

 

Friday night was supposed to be _their_ night. It was a night where they could all come together and not worry about work or school or any other responsibilities that took time away from each other. For once, Leo thought that he could have a pleasant time with his siblings together in one room, talking about trivial things and the story of their week. This was a luxury they could barely afford and Leo would not trade it for anything.

 

But then _he_ had to come along on a _Friday_ night. He was someone only whispered among their family as “the monster” or “the beast.” Rarely would they ever grace him with the name of “Father” after everything he had done in the past.

 

They were so lucky that little Elise was away being tutored by a man named Arthur, refusing to go outside until the heavy rain had cleared. They were so lucky that Camilla was there to distract him at the door, since she was the only one who could stand such a strong scent of booze and cigar smoke. They were so lucky that Xander was read, as he always was, to send Leo through the garage entrance, telling him to run to someone’s house and hide for the night.

 

Leo’s last seconds on his property was spent looking into the house from a window and watching as Camilla was screamed at and knocked over by the beast, followed by Xander who decided words were not enough to apprehend him.

 

And oh, did he run.

 

He ran through the cold rain, icy tendrils chilling his body to the core. The wind whipped against his red cheeks, drenching his pale skin in moisture. His hair clung to his forehead, shrouding his eyes with every leap and bound such that he had to stop every so often to wipe it out of his face. By the time he was halfway to his destination, his lungs stung like a roaring fire no matter how much he gasped for oxygen. He inhaled the rainwater like a drug, choking on it before running again.

 

From behind the door, he heard a female voice call out to someone from within. Leo stood there, shivering, hugging himself, shifting from foot to foot, and quite possibly crying under the sound of the pouring rain and approaching thunder. He didn’t have the time to put on a proper jacket and was now hating his lack of hindsight. His blonde hair fell in front of his face, and this time, he didn’t fix it.

 

To his surprise, Takumi opened the door. The deaf boy took one look at his shaking form and immediately pulled him into the house where the rain could drown him no more. Sakura stood several feet behind her brother and gasped. As much as Takumi kept signing _“What? What’s wrong?”_ to him, his words went unnoticed as Leo clutched to his shirt, his friend feeling like the sun under his wet skin. Leo placed his right fist in his left palm, thumb upward, and pulled his hands back towards his chest.

 

_“Help me.”_

 

Takumi shut the door behind him and Leo began sobbing into his shoulder, begging for help in a cold, uncaring world.

 

_“Help me.”_

 

_“Help me.”_

 

_“Help me.”_

 

_“Help me.”_

 

That was all he said for the longest time. Takumi had given him a change of loose-fitting pajamas once he was dry enough and sat him on a couch in front of the heater in the living room. Takumi offered various hot drinks to him, but Leo turned them down. He didn’t think he could stomach anything just yet. They turned the television on low so Leo had something to listen to besides the rain. After making sure Leo wasn’t hurt and was in good health, Takumi dismissed his sister to bed. He never left Leo’s side.

 

Every twenty minutes or so, Takumi would carefully ask, _“What’s wrong?”_ But every time he did, Leo would just shake his head and refuse to answer. And so they wrote to each other about a lot of things. They wrote about school, about music, about history and war. At one point in the night, they drew pictures on paper and tried to communicate with abstract shapes only in order to challenge themselves.

 

 _“Ryoma, Hinoka, and Yukimura are away,”_ Takumi wrote. _“They said they might be working until early in the morning so they won’t be back any time soon. If they come before you leave, I’m sure they would understand.”_

 

Leo rested his head against one of the couch pillows and sighed. This was not the first time his father came back in the middle of the day demanding money to fuel his drug obsession in Macarath where he supposedly had another house and a few wives. No matter how many times they changed the lock, he would always have a key. Xander was at his wit’s end trying to keep him at bay, trying to keep his younger siblings safe. Leo prayed that he and Camilla were alright.

 

When the clock struck 2am, Takumi and Leo were both fast asleep. Leo had cocooned himself in one of Takumi’s fluffy blankets while Takumi in his pajamas cuddled up to his back, nestling his chin in the crook of Leo’s neck. Their combined snores were just audible above the din of the forgotten television, their notebook paper and sketches discarded on the floor. When the time came for Ryoma, Hinoka, and Yukimura to return, they saw the two boys and decided that they could deal with them tomorrow afternoon when they were fully rested.

 

Leo woke up at 4am, his tired eyes looking around the room before he had any actual post-sleep thoughts. There was something warm and soft on top of him, his feet cold from lack of protection. Leo looked to the side and found the blanket had fallen off as it lay crumpled on the floor beside the couch. He shifted and raised his hand, finding that it was covered in long silver hair that wound around his fingers and fell through the cracks. Takumi’s faint snoring picked up near his ear.

 

The boy on top of him had his arms and one leg wrapped around Leo’s body tightly, soaking up all of his body heat. A line of drool found its way from his mouth to Leo’s borrowed pajama shirt, eyes shut tight. Leo could feel Takumi’s hands twitching every so often as he dreamt. He hoped the deaf boy was only dreaming good things, of stars and bright skies and far-off places where nothing went wrong.

 

Leo, in his hazy state of mind, settled onto his pillow once more, pulling Takumi closer to his chest so they could share their warmth. Takumi snorted and tightened his arms around Leo unknowingly.

 

… He felt nice.

 

… He felt very nice.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Takumi felt strange.

 

Leo had been allowed to stay the weekend until tensions in his household had died down and his older brother messaged him that it was safe to return. They woke up to the tantalizing smell of bacon and eggs with toast, to which Takumi woke up all by himself after quickly picking up on the scent. They spent the weekend together in a state of bliss. Hinata and Oboro came over like every other weekend and slept over as well. Takumi had done everything in his power to make sure Leo was comfortable in his home. They all laughed about trivial things that made his father’s abuse seem worlds away. To Ryoma and Hinoka, at least for now, Leo was forgiven.

 

Ever since that blissful weekend, there had been a pain in Takumi’s chest. He ached whenever he couldn’t see the boy. Part of him wondered if he had become too dependant on him, something Yukimura had warned him of before. Part of him wondered if Leo felt the same way, or if he just wanted to coddle him after learning about his past.

 

It was true that he hadn’t felt this way for anyone else. Usually, he was the one being coddled by everyone else. Everyone thought he needed to be put on a pedestal and protected behind glass, even his friends and family. His family took every precaution they could to make sure he was safe when he was home, Hinata and Oboro acted as his bodyguards on the weekends, and Leo, consciously or not, watched over him like a hawk when they were together on weekdays.

 

Takumi knew he did not like to feel like a fragile doll that needed to be cared for and maintained. He knew in his heart and the back of his mind that he could take a beating and that he could watch over himself. He did not want Leo to feel the same way with him now that his secret was out.

 

But that didn’t stop Takumi from genuinely wanting to be near him. That did not stop him from wanting to take care of him or wanting to chat with him extensively about anything and everything. That did not stop him from wanting to make him smile and wanting to ease his worries.

 

That did not stop him from listening to his cello.

 

Leo had insisted, after being reminded that Takumi knew how to listen for a rhythm, to play the cello for him privately in his basement after school. He had the many music sheets spread out around him as he tuned his instrument. Takumi sat on one of the couches attentively, rubbing his palms over his jeans as Leo got ready. They didn’t sign anything to each other yet.

 

As Leo began to play the first song, Takumi finally closed his eyes. At this close proximity, he could clearly feel each note as Leo played it. The faint thrum in his ears felt light like the flap of butterfly wings. The song was unlike the ones Leo chose to play in his videos. Those ones were usually slower. However, this one was faster and more lighthearted. Either way, Takumi sighed, content at the private presentation. He had always loved Leo’s music and he swore he always would.

 

“I don’t know how I’m going to get this right in two weeks,” Leo mumbled to himself every time he missed a note and had to start again. He pushed his limits each night since that was the only way he would pull off the entire play perfectly. Every day he decided to practice on his own, Takumi was always there to listen. He could obviously see how eager he was to listen to him play, how much the deaf boy loved his music. There was a certain pride that came with such knowledge, and Leo held it dear in his chest.

 

Leo stopped playing after the final note. Sensing that there was no more music playing, Takumi opened his eyes. _“You did great,”_ he signed, a wide, bright smile cutting his face in two.

 

 _“Thank you,”_ Leo replied, returning the grin. If he practiced a bit harder, maybe then he could do the entire play through without looking so much at the music sheets. He packed up his cello and gathered the sheets. _“Do you want to do something?”_

 

Takumi shook his head.

 

 _“Want to read?”_ Leo asked.

 

Takumi nodded.

 

Leo’s room wasn’t as spacious as Takumi’s. He also had a large bookcase and a desk with old papers and utensils scattered among it. His bed was bigger, however, and Takumi grew envious of this fact. He made himself at home just as Hinata and Oboro had done at his own house by sitting at the edge of the bed and getting comfortable. Leo poked through a few of his volumes to give to his friend. He finally settled on _History of the Yato Blade_ and handed it over to Takumi, who took it graciously. He took a book for himself and sat next to his friend, flipping to where he last left off. Their shoulders bumped against each other every so often, or they would sneak a peek to what the other was reading, and by the time an hour passed, they laid on their stomachs with their books propped up on the mattress and they were warm and happy.

 

Takumi looked over to Leo, who was trying to focus on his book but was too busy laughing at something Takumi wrote making fun of the historical princess in the text. And Takumi watched him laugh, and settle himself into silence, and laugh again.

 

His chest felt strange. _Oh no,_ Takumi thought. _Oh no._

 

*~*~*~*

 

As much as he loved the limelight, Odin couldn’t wait for the play to be over. Since he was the lead male, he had so many cues to commit to memory, so many songs, so many lines in so little time. “This role might as well smite me down where I sleep because I cannot take any more,” he admitted to Leo over lunch. He rubbed his temples slowly, hoping his headache would go away. He too had been practicing until late into the night. Perhaps a little too late, much to his mother’s disdain.

 

“Me too,” Leo agreed, taking a bite out of his sandwich. “And then after that, we have the spring concert to worry about.”

 

“I can handle the concert,” Odin sighed, picking at his bag of chips. “I cannot handle _this,_ though. This performance is nothing like last year’s.”

 

Leo nodded. “Subaki was the best director,” he said before raising his water bottle to his lips.

 

Takumi tapped his pencil on the table, going over some math homework he missed. Math wasn’t exactly his area of expertise, but they were learning some pretty simple theorems that he committed to memory right away. Since he didn’t want to chat, Leo didn’t feel obligated to translate for him. That just left himself and Odin at their lunch table, at least until the bell rang and the period came to an end.

 

“We must pull through,” Odin grunted as he threw his trash into a nearby bin and swung his backpack over his shoulder. “For the sake of ourselves and our humanity.”

 

“I think that’s going too far,” Leo stated, throwing out his trash after him. When he turned back to face his friends, he saw Takumi slip a note into Odin’s hand, who promptly hid it from Leo’s view. Leo cocked his brow, but only gathered his books into his bookbag and stared at Takumi curiously. The deaf boy fiddled with his papers, collecting them and throwing them into his folder which he then tucked into his bag. Their eyes did not meet.

 

 _“What did you give him?”_ Leo signed when they were walking up the stairs to their classes.

 

Takumi shrugged. _“Nothing,”_ he answered before walking away.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“You want me to teach you how to sign?” Oboro asked incredulously. After some convincing, Takumi gave Leo Hinata’s and Oboro’s phone numbers on the condition that he got Odin’s and Niles’. The first thing Leo did with his new contact is call Oboro up and hope she was already out of classes. She was, and so he wasted no time in asking her to be his private tutor. “I mean, last time we hung out, you were doing pretty well. There were a few stutters here and there but what did you expect? Why do you need me?”

 

Leo took a deep breath. “I want you to teach me more about sign language,” he stated. “There’s only so much I can teach myself, and I still need to use my phone to talk to Takumi sometimes. I want to come to the point where we can have a full conversation without one of us pausing to take out our phones.”

 

He heard Oboro sign from the other side of the line. “Leo, it took me _years_ to get to the point I’m at now, and you said it yourself that you had only been learning sign language for a few months. I think you’re going at a great pace now.”

 

“B-but I want to learn more,” Leo attested. He flipped over to his back on his mattress, staring at the white ceiling. “There’s a lot of things grammar-wise that I don’t understand. And my vocabulary is lacking. I can only say small sentences and I want to be able to convey more to him.”

 

“Well, what exactly are you trying to say to him?” Oboro asked.

 

“Anything, really,” Leo answered. “Just, please, please be my teacher?”

 

There was a short pause between them. “... Why don’t you just ask him to tutor you?”

 

“I want it to be a surprise. Imagine how happy he would be to see we can talk about more things than just food and music.”

 

Oboro paused again. Leo knew he had struck a nerve with that one. “... I guess something can be managed,” she finally relented. “Since I always go to Takumi’s house on Saturdays at 12pm, we can meet up before then. Is there a library near there or something?”

 

Leo smiled to himself, confident that he finally won. “Yeah, there’s one near the school. Meet me there Saturday at 10?”

 

“You’d better keep your promise.”

 

“Of course.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

 _“I still don’t understand what you want me to do,”_ Odin wrote. Takumi had pulled him aside when practice had ended early for the cast. He had wanted his answer to the note, but Odin wasn’t quite sure what he had meant.

 

Takumi took out his phone, leaning against the lockers. _“I want you to teach me to do what you do,”_ he answered.

 

Odin scratched the back of his head, squinting at the message with a grim expression. _“You want me to teach you how to sing?”_

 

_“No, I want you to teach me how to speak.”_

 

Odin kept staring at the message with pure disbelief. _“I don’t know how to teach something like that,”_ he answered. He was almost sure that would be enough to satisfy Takumi. He turned to leave, but Takumi caught his sleeve and tugged him back. He would not be let go until he had what he wanted.

 

 _“Please,”_ Takumi wrote. Odin gave him another grim look. _“You have such a powerful voice, I know you’re the only one who can do this. You don’t need to teach me how to say a lot. Only teach me how to say one thing. One thing is all I need.”_

 

Odin knitted his brows. _“What do you need to say?”_ he wrote back.

 

Takumi bit his lip anxiously and wrote out his answer.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Sakura had an inkling of what was going on before Takumi ever told her. She saw the looks they gave each other when Ryoma, Hinoka, and Yukimura weren’t around after school. It was hard to ignore their laughing from across the hall while she was on her phone. They insisted on spending every waking moment with each other, and well, it was _sickening_ in a good way.

 

She stirred her cereal minutes before Yukimura left. “H-hey, Uncle Yukimura,” she started. “Takumi is acting weird, isn’t he?”

 

Her uncle coughed lightly behind his coffee mug. He hadn’t expected her to speak. “No, no. I haven’t noticed at all,” he said, clearing his throat. “Why do you ask?”

 

“I-it’s just that he spends a lot of time with Leo, after all,” she stuttered. “I think he just g-got really close to him really fast.”

 

“It’s nice that he has a friend to connect with in this school.” Yukimura let out a sigh of content, breathing in his coffee fumes. “Do you not think so?”

 

Sakura finally spooned a mouthful of cereal into her mouth. “H-he wasn’t that close to Oboro or Hinata when we lived in Nestra,” she recalled.

 

Yukimura thought to himself for a moment. After getting so little sleep, his brain was feeling quite dizzy. It was almost alarming for someone his age. “Are you sure?” he asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

 

Sakura kicked her legs under the dining table. Perhaps she had been wrong.

 

“Go wake up your brother.”

 

As she did every day, Sakura put her bowl of cereal in the sink before heading upstairs. She could not hear Takumi’s alarm going off, the first thing she found that was startling. It wasn’t rare for Takumi to wake up on his own and catch the alarm going off, so perhaps that was what happened and he lost track of time doing something else. Sakura approached his door, hearing what sounded like low mumbles from the other side. She opened the door.

 

Takumi cleared his throat one last time in the mirror. His voice was hoarse and cracking from underuse. He could not hear his voice, he did not understand what it sounded like. But every time he cleared his throat, he mumbled something that Sakura could not decipher.

 

“Ya. Ruv. Cue,” it sounded like he was saying.

 

“My. Of. Wu.”

 

“Ah. Wuv. Myu.”

 

Over and over, he would rehearse his nonsensical words until it all came together in Sakura’s mind. And suddenly, she thought, perhaps she was right after all.

 

*~*~*~*

 

The play had went live and Leo hated every minute of it. Half of the pit forgot their cues, as well as most of the cast. Improv was key in such a sad rendition of a theatrical classic. During intermission, some students in the pit packed up their instruments and never came back. Leo hit his head against the wall of his bathroom stall repeatedly, trying to rectify the situation by chanting, _This is what Shakespeare would have wanted_ , in his head over and over.

 

Odin was doing great. He was a master of improv, which was perfect considering he was on stage 80 percent of the play and could help fix any mistake the others made while still in character. Leo wanted his ability to do that and not be an awkward, sweating mess. That was why he was in pit.

 

“I can’t wait for the spring concert,” Leo grunted, hauling his cello into the back of Lissa’s car after the last performance. “I really don’t want to ever be included in one of Izana’s plays again.”

 

“I understand completely, comrade,” Odin nodded, hopping into the passenger seat. “I will be waiting with you the whole way.”

 

Halfway through the drive to Leo’s house, he received a text from Takumi that made him sneer. _“Does Daniel always dab when he almost dies or was that artistic interpretation?”_

 

“Did you see Takumi in the audience?” Leo asked, typing out a quick reply.

 

Odin turned in his seat to face his friend in the back. “No, I couldn’t see him. Mayhaps he was all the way in the back?”

 

“Maybe…” But somehow, Leo doubted it.

 

*~*~*~*

 

_“Sakura, I’ve been thinking about what you told me and I think it’s best to break it to him gently. Takumi trusts you the most, after all.”_

 

Takumi was home on one rare occasion when Leo was busy, leaving him to work on his studies in private. It wasn’t late, but the sun was just about setting in his window, providing a few more minutes of natural light before he would need to turn a light on. His phone vibrated in the middle of a take-home science test and he looked to see the text was from Ryoma, addressed to someone who obviously was not him. Takumi stared at his phone screen, not knowing what exactly to do. Should he go to Sakura’s room and show her the text or should he just leave it be and act like he never saw it in the first place?

 

He decided to do the latter and focus on his work. But what was Ryoma trying to say? What did Sakura need to break to him? Why did she need to be the one to do it? So many questions swam around Takumi’s mind that it became harder and harder to focus on the diagram of a mitochondria. _This conversation doesn’t involve you,_ he berated himself. But it kind of did involve him, and that was what hurt him the most.

 

Luckily, he didn’t need to wait much longer before receiving a second text explaining everything. _“If his feelings for Leo are true, as you suspect, then it would be best for you to tell him it probably would never happen.”_

 

Takumi gulped, now sitting up on his bed. _How did Sakura figure this out?_ he thought with a gaping mouth, eyes wide. _I thought… I was making it a surprise… how did…_

 

Another text. _“Odds are, nobody would love someone who is deaf.”_

 

Clutching his phone tightly to his chest, Takumi realized he never thought about that. A cold, bone-chilling wave of numbness washed over him like a crashing wave. Suddenly, it was becoming very hard for him to breathe. Nausea settled into the pit of his stomach shortly after, and Takumi felt like he was going to be _sick._

 

His phone was wet when he unlocked his smartphone, trembling fingers writing out a text to Leo. His tears ran across the glass surface before dropping to his lap. Takumi blinked at his opposite wall, trying to dry his eyes before wiping the rest away. Then he hopped off his bed and made his way to the front entrance.

 

A flash of pink caught the corner of his eye as he was slipping on his sneakers. He cast a hateful glare to Sakura, who quickly signed, _“Where are you going?”_ He left without a word, all the while clutching his phone so tightly in his hand that marks were left across his palm.

 

Leo was waiting for ten minutes. _“You want to meet in front of the school garden? Are you sure?”_ he had replied. Takumi texted back in the affirmative, knowing that Leo would be there no matter what. _“Then I’ll be there.”_

 

It was cold outside. Winter was in full swing with spring in six weeks. Cheve didn’t get a lot of snow in general, and Takumi was glad about this. Nestra had made him hate snow. Takumi ran to the school in his jacket and sneakers, his cheeks red and raw from lack of protection. He had been so desperate to see Leo that he was willing to run ten miles in the cold to see him again.

 

 _Please don’t laugh at me,_ he thought as he approached Leo panting. Leo was standing in front of the red chrysanthemums that were miraculously surviving Cheve’s winter. Takumi bent over with his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. By now, the sun had set and the school was beginning to be bathed in darkness. The only light to mark their way was the moon above them.

 

 _“What is it?”_ Leo signed with a confused smile. _“Do you want something?”_

 

Takumi stood at his full height, meeting his eyes square with his last bit of confidence. He bit his lip, not knowing how to proceed. It had all sounded so good in his mind that he didn’t stop to think what would happen if he got this far. But he had to do it. He couldn’t let his training go to waste.

 

Takumi took a deep breath.

 

“Ah! Wuv! Moo!”

 

His voice was gritty and distorted, and Leo didn’t think he heard well. A polite smile fixed onto his lips. _“What?”_ he asked.

 

Takumi took another breath. His face was hot with embarrassment. Was he doing it wrong? Had Odin lied? Was it not enough?

 

“I! Luv! Myu!”

 

Leo stared at him for a few seconds, trying to process what he had just said. Takumi kept his eyes trained at the ground, dreading what he might see when he looked back up. Eventually, he did out of curiosity and saw Leo still standing there with a confused expression.

 

 _“You love the moon?”_ Leo asked, making a crescent shape with his index and thumb with his right hand and holding it close to his head.

 

 _No,_ Takumi thought, his posture deflating. All of his confidence he had built up while running there had been for naught. _That’s not what I… Maybe Ryoma was right?_

 

 _“Do you want to go for a walk?”_ Leo signed. To his surprise, Takumi slowly shook his head, obviously bothered by something. _“What do you want to talk about?”_

 

_“I want to go home.”_

 

Leo paused, caught off guard. He was so sure that when Takumi texted him that it was something important, but he wanted to leave already. Maybe he had been wrong. Still, he showed the same level of patience and understanding that Takumi had shown for him in his own time of need. He offered to walk Takumi home. They did not chat the entire time.

 

Takumi threw himself at his bed, sniffing and whimpering to himself. Sakura carefully opened his bedroom door and looked inside. _“What happened?”_ Sakura asked him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

 

Instead of signing something, Takumi took out his phone.

 

_“I told Leo I loved him.”_

 

Sakura’s eyes widened. _“Really?”_ she replied.

 

_“But he didn’t understand me.”_

 

*~*~*~*

 

“You’ve been spacing out a lot, so I hear,” Odin remarked. “Does this have to do with Takumi not having lunch with us anymore?”

 

“It was completely unprompted,” Leo attested warily. Ever since that night, he had been worrying nonstop over the deaf boy. He asked himself questions like _Why was Takumi acting so strange?_ _Why did he call me out that night? What was he really trying to say?_

 

Odin shrugged his shoulders. “It must be, since he seems to be avoiding you,” he stated before downing another baby carrot.

 

Leo drummed his fingers on the lunch table, completely out of sorts without Takumi by his side. He felt like he was missing something if the deaf boy wasn’t near him. He hated this feeling of loss, but it was undeniable.

 

“He tried telling me something yesterday,” Leo recalled, resting his chin on the cold table surface. “Something with his voice, but I didn’t understand him.”

 

“His voice…” Odin repeated, scratching his chin with his index finger. “Hmm… That’s odd.”

 

“I know,” Leo agreed. “It’s weird for a mute person to start speaking all of a sudden, or at least trying to.”

 

“No, no, that’s not it,” Odin said. He made a “shush” gesture towards his friend with one hand. “Lately, Takumi had been coming to me after school to teach him how to say things.”

 

This piqued Leo’s interest in an instant. He straightened his posture to meet his friend’s gaze. “What kind of things?” he asked carefully.

 

“Why, he was trying to say ‘I love you.’ I told him it was impossible, but I…” Odin began trailing off, and suddenly they looked wide into each other’s eyes as they came to the same conclusion simultaneously. “... Do you think he was trying to say that he loved you?”

 

Leo’s breath caught in his throat. He cursed to himself, balling up his fists on the table. “Oh gods, I’m so blind,” he lamented to himself, carding his fingers anxiously through his hair. “I messed up, oh gods…”

 

“Hey, hey, hey,” Odin tried getting his attention as he placed his hand on Leo’s shoulder. “Do you feel the same way?”

 

“I…” Leo couldn’t finish his sentence. “I… u-um…”

 

A knowing smile slowly bloomed on Odin’s face. “You need to tell him!” he chuckled giddily, bouncing in his seat. “Tell him! I’m sure that would fix everything.”

 

Leo exhaled a breath he didn’t know he was holding. _Right,_ he thought. _I just need to tell him…_

 

*~*~*~*

 

“To do this sign, you need to cross your left arm over your right and hold both of your fists to your chest, like you’re giving someone a hug,” Oboro instructed. Leo copied what she did in the center of the library, unaware of everyone around them. “Don’t be afraid to hug tight and let those shoulders come forward.”

 

Leo pressed his forearms and loose fists into his chest. “Am I doing this right?” he asked.

 

“I said left over right.” He switched his arms.

 

Oboro looked him over again for the third time since he had requested that particular sign. “Is there a reason you wanted me to teach you this?” she asked, growing impatient. They only had half an hour before they were expected to be at Takumi’s house. Though Leo wasn’t exactly sure if he was still invited to their weekly hangout, he still would make sure to come and make amends.

 

Leo gulped. “No reason,” he lied, letting his arms drop.

 

She paused, her eyes narrowing. “That’s such a fib. You have an agenda,” she accused. She then made her patent stink face which made Leo feel like he shrunk a few inches. He hated that face.

 

“... Okay, I have a reason,” he muttered under his breath. “But you can’t tell anyone.”

 

Oboro went back to her neutral face and scooted closer on her chair. “Of course I won’t.” They stared at each other expectantly, waiting for the other to make the first move. Eventually, Oboro’s face fell into a frown again. “Are you going to tell me why you wanted to learn the sign?” she growled through gritted teeth.

 

“No, I don’t think I ever said I would tell you,” Leo snickered.

 

Oboro practically screamed into her hands, frustrated at his mockery. “Why did I ever think this was a good idea?!”

 

The librarian shushed them. They fell into whispers.

 

“Trust me,” Leo asked of her. “Please.”

 

Oboro pouted, crossing her arms. “Only if you tell me why.”

 

Leo sighed, his face flushing. He told her the reason.

 

“To make it more dramatic…” Oboro paused when they resumed their tutoring session. “Point to yourself, then make the sign, then point to the person it’s guided towards.” She had Leo repeat the full phrase several times before he finally perfected it. She smiled at him. “Now, you’re ready to go.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

_“I know what Odin tried to teach you.”_

 

Takumi dropped his phone, staring up at Leo. Initially, he did not want him to come back into his house after being rejected. But Oboro had pulled Leo in and acted as if she could not see Takumi’s glares at the boy as they made their way to his room. Then Oboro had brought Hinata to the kitchen, looking for a snack and pouring everyone water. Takumi had offered, but Oboro waved him away. She had made a promise to Leo that she would keep.

 

He couldn’t meet Leo’s eye. He stared down at his palms. He didn’t want to listen anymore. He wanted to fall into a realm of ignorance and peacefulness. He didn’t want this rejection.

 

But still Leo wouldn’t stop tapping on his shoulder until he looked up. Embarrassed tears stung at the corners of his eyes. It hurt. The sinking feeling in his gut hurt. Everything hurt. He was going to cry and Leo would go back to mocking him and bullying him like before.

 

Leo pointed to himself, pressed his forearms and loose fists into his chest, then pointed to Takumi’s chest. The deaf boy’s eyes widened at him. Leo repeated it.

 

_“I love you.”_

 

Takumi didn’t move.

 

_“I love you.”_

 

When Hinata and Oboro came back with snacks and glasses of water, they found Takumi with his head tucked into Leo’s neck, arms wrapped tightly around his middle. He was so warm. Being so close to him brought a pleasant feeling rising from Leo’s chest. He didn’t want to let go, even if Takumi couldn’t stop crying his ugly, strained, unrefined cry. That was fine with them. To them, everything was perfect.

 

*~*~*~*

 

_Take a deep breath, Leo. You just need to focus._

 

Leo carried his cello to his seat, watching everyone else settle in on the stage before the curtains opened, revealing the school orchestra. He felt like he was going to choke behind his white collar dress shirt, especially due to the sweltering heat of the stage lights trained on him. Already, he could feel himself sweating. He looked out to the audience.

 

Mr. Jakob’s opening words praising his orchestra went over his head. Leo was too focused on the audience to remember what he said. Xander was working, Camilla was away, and Elise was busy after school. Leo didn’t blame them for not being able to come to the spring concert, after all, they had lives that were separate from his own. He wasn’t looking for them, however.

 

The sound of opening violins snapped Leo’s attention back on his cello. Of course, after so much practice, Leo didn’t miss a beat when his cue came. Pomp and Circumstance came naturally to him by now, and soon, he was sucked into the music as he always was. The only times he came out of his trance was between songs. That was when he looked out into the audience again. That was when he looked for Takumi’s head among the crowd of proud mothers and fathers, to see if his friend had held up to his word.

 

_Please, please be here._

 

“I hope you all enjoyed that,” Mr. Jakob said to the audience with his microphone. The curtains closed and everyone quickly moved out of the way, everyone except Leo. “Now, we have just one more special presentation to end the night…”

 

Leo breathed in and held his breath for eight seconds. His nerves began to calm themselves. Above everything, now was not the time to be nervous. The curtains opened to reveal only him on stage.

 

He began to play as usual, unaccompanied by the rest of his class. This piece was committed to memory as well, but this was his solo, Moonlight Sonata. It was not his favorite piece, but it was something he had picked out with someone in mind. He closed his eyes and allowed his fingers to dance across his strings, pulling his bow across them with practiced grace.

 

When the piece came to an end and he fixed his eyes on the audience again, they began clapping and leaving their seats. Mr. Jakob made his final remarks as the stage lights went dim and the curtains started to close. Leo wasn’t done searching the audience. With a loud bang, he let his cello fall to the floor as he stood from his seat, drawing the attention of many. He followed the curtain as it was closing, trying to block him out from everyone else.

 

_Please, please, tell me you’re here._

 

“Leo, what are you doing?” Mr. Jakob hissed at him, covering his mic.

 

He wouldn’t be cut off from him again. Not without knowing he was there. But the curtains closed in the middle of the stage where Leo stood, gazing one last time to the confused audience in front of him. Mr. Jakob tried to rectify the situation, which seemed to satisfy everyone enough to get them out of the auditorium. Leo stood just behind the curtain, unable to move, until he was sure everyone was gone.

 

_Don’t tell me you didn’t come and see…_

 

Clicking his cello case shut, Leo’s posture drooped heavily. Odin came up to him, wrapped his arm around his shoulder, and said he did very well. Leo thanked him, but it didn’t come out as genuine.

 

“Is it okay if Lissa drives me home?”

 

“I’m sure Mother would be fine with that.”

 

Odin went to greet his mother and loved ones who came to watch the performance. Leo let them be alone in their own microcosm for a while, standing off to the side and watching as everyone, the chorus, band, and orchestra alike, separated into their own little groups while he was left alone. Alone as usual. Alone as he will always be.

 

“Oof!”

 

Leo thrashed for a bit when he felt something heavy knock into his back. He tried turning his head to face the thing, panic slowly rising within him. But when he saw a patch of silver hair over his shoulder, Leo relaxed. He didn’t have anything to be worried about now.

 

“You came this time,” Leo said to himself as he turned fully to face Takumi, who smiled widely up at him. Leo set his cello case down to free his hands. _“Hi,”_ he signed.

 

 _“You were wonderful,”_ Takumi remarked, pulling away quickly to make his words known before wrapping his arms tightly around Leo’s waist again. Before they could do anything else, Takumi gave himself a little boost with his toes and pressed his lips upon Leo’s, just as they had done before many times. Leo smiled into the kiss and returned it with all of his might, wrapping his arms around Takumi’s shoulders and never letting go.

 

For once in his life, he was glad that nobody was watching.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Hello, everyone,” Leo said into his camera early one morning. “I don’t usually make videos like this, but I figured I would give you a small life update. Or rather, more of a how-to video that relates to my everyday life now.”

 

Leo stood in front of his bed in his bedroom. It was early morning, earlier than when most people wake up. His blonde hair was messy and disheveled with bedhead, but he couldn’t care less. Slowly, he dipped his camera to show Takumi in an equally disheveled mess with his hair everywhere, but unlike Leo, he was curled up sleeping peacefully between Leo’s bedsheets. His light shoring was picked up by Leo’s camera.

 

“This is my boyfriend,” Leo explained to the camera, trying to get a better angle of Takumi’s unmoving face and twitching hands. “But unlike most people, he’s deaf.” To demonstrate the validity of his words, Leo snapped his fingers at each side of Takumi’s head, receiving absolutely no response. He licked his lips and let out a single shout to punctuate his statement. Takumi didn’t flinch nor twitch. He looked completely blissed out.

 

“This is my how-to video on how to properly wake up deaf boyfriends in the morning,” Leo said, sitting up from the bed and exiting his bedroom, leaving Takumi behind. He entered the kitchen at the base of the stairs and walked over to the stove where he had pre-prepared everything he would need. A pack of fresh bacon, a carton of eggs, a skillet… everything was there.

 

Once the skillet was hot, Leo stabbed the bacon with his fork and laid it on the skillet, letting it fry. He did this a few times, waiting for it to turn crispy. Every twenty seconds of so, Leo would point the camera to the stairs and show that nobody had woken up yet. In such a case, he kept making breakfast without saying anything.

 

Leo was two eggs in when he suddenly pointed his camera and Takumi appeared out of nowhere, rubbing his tired eyes, sniffing the air lightly. “And he’s awake!” Leo said to his audience.

 

 _“Why are you filming me?”_ Takumi asked, slowly approaching Leo, covering his face shyly with one hand.

 

Leo smirked behind the camera. _“Because you’re cute,”_ he answered.

 

Takumi blushed and snickered at the same time, unable to hide his smile from Leo’s camera. _“Turn it off, turn it off!”_ he commanded.

 

 _“Okay,”_ Leo signed. And he did.

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, I hope you guys all enjoyed the one thing I funneled most of my free time into for the past month.
> 
> Some notes on deafness:  
> -Takumi was born deaf, likely due to damage in the cochlea. People who are born deaf cannot wear hearing aids because hearing aids amplify sound that is already heard, and to people born deaf, there is no sound to amplify. The only way for someone born deaf to hear is to get a cochlear implant which needs to be recommended by a doctor at a pre-language age. The farther a deaf person grows from that age, the less likely they will be able to adjust to hearing. People who get cochlear implants after grasping language will have trouble adjusting to speaking as well as hearing in general. So Takumi does not qualify for cochlear implants and will probably never hear in his life.  
> -It is true that deaf people can enjoy music by vibrations alone. I find this fact really cool. Music affects everyone, deaf or not, the same way, as it all gets processed the same way in the same part of the brain. The only difference is that the deaf person cannot distinguish the notes, but it is pleasurable all the same.  
> -It's still rude to yell into someone's ears regardless of whether or not they can hear you. Don't be that guy.  
> -Takumi and Leo communicate with ASL. I was originally going to use JSL like in A Silent Voice, but then I found a nifty ASL dictionary at handspeak.com and that served as my guide for the most part and I totally recommend it if you guys want to learn ASL.  
> -Lots of deaf people are content with being deaf bc then they don't have to listen to the BS going on in the world. Good for them.  
> -Just like some people talk in their sleep, deaf people who know sign language can "sleep-sign" though whatever they sign is usually muddy and difficult to understand. This is why Takumi's hands twitch when he sleeps. It's his equivalent to someone mumbling in their sleep.
> 
> Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed! Sorry it took so long eheheh. *crawls back into my cave for another 50 years*


End file.
